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Cymbeline

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WILLL\M
SHAKESPEARE

^ih Introductions,

Notes, Gloss i»rv.
Critical Conanci.ls.
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THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY'

NEW YORK

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BOOKLOVERS
EDITION

CYMBELINE
TIMON OF ATHENS

WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE

^N5th Introductions.

Noics, Glossary.

Critical Comments.

and Method of Study

THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY

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THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY INC.

Manufactured in the U. S. A.

CYMBELIIsfE;

Preface.

The First Edition. '' The Tragedie of Cymbeline "
was first printed in the FoHo of 1623 ; it is the last play
in the volume, where it occupies pp. 369-399 (misprinted
993). It has been found desirable to remove it from its
position in the Folio so that it may be included in this
volume of " Comedies."

The place of Cymbeline in the First Folio has led some
critics to infer that it was included late, and as an after-
thought. The text of the play is certainly unsatisfactory,
and possibly represents in many cases the Poet's " rough-
cast notes " rather than his finished work.

Doubtful Passages. The Vision in Act V. 3c- iv.
was probably by some other hand than Shakespeare's ; it
recalls the problems connected with the Masque in the
Fourth Act of The Tempest; in both cases it is impor-
tant to remember the fetidness for this species of compo-
sition during the reign of James I. The Vision may have
been inserted for some special Court representation.

The exquisite simplicity of the dirge sung by the broth-
ers over the grave of Fidele (Act IV. Sc. ii.) seems to
have raised doubts in the minds of certain commentators
as to the authenticity of the lines ; they have found
" something strikingly inferior " in the concluding coup-
lets, both in thought and expression ; they would reject,
as " additions,"

Golden lads and girls all must.
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust/

preferring no doubt Collins' s more elegant reude,tva^\ —

Preface CYMBELINE

" To fair Fidele's grassy tomb

Soft maids and village hinds shall bring
Each opening sweet of earliest bloom.
And rifle all the breathing spring!'*

The ** Tragedy" of Cymbeline. The editors of the
First Folio erred in describing Cymbeline as a " Tragedy,"
and in placing it in the division of " Tragedies " ; 'all is
outward sorrow ' at the opening of the story, but its close
is attuned to the harmony of peace and happiness, and the
play thus satisfies the essential conditions of "Romantic
Comedy,** or more properly of Shakespearian " Tragi-
comedy," — life's commingling of tears and laughter, sor-
row and joy, joy triumphant in the end.

Date of Composition. No positive evidence exists for
the date of composition of Cymbeline ; the probabilities
are in favour of 1609-10.

This limit may be fixed from a notice in the MS. Diary
of Dr. Simon Forman, a notorious quack and astrologer.
His "Book of Plaies and Notes thereof for common Pol-
licie ''* shows him an enthusiastic play-goer ; it contains
his reports of three Shakespearian representations at the
Globe Theatre in 1610-11 ; Macbeth is referred to under
the former year (possibly an error for 161 1) ; The Win-
ter's Tale was witnessed on the 15th of May, 161 1, two
or three months before the diarist's death ; Cymbeline un-
fortunately has no date assigned; there is merely the
statement, preceding an epitome of the plot, —

" Remember also the story of Cymbalin, King of Eng-
land in Lucius' time/'

Cymbeline's influence on Beaumont and Fletcher's Phi-
last er (cp. the characters of Imogen and Euphrasia f) is

♦Among the Ashmolean MSS. (2c8) in the Bodleian Library;
privately printed by Halliwell-Phillipps.

t As a single instance of the borrowings, in thought and phrase-
ology, the following may be noted : —

" The gods take part against me; could this boor
Have held me thus else?" {Philaster, IV. i.).

Cymbeline, V. ii. 2-6.

CYMBELINE Preface

noteworthy : the date of the latter play cannot be definitely
fixed, but the evidence points to circa 1610-11 ; 1608 is
the earliest date critics have assigned to it. Similarly
Webster's " White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona/' printed
in 161 2, and written circa 1608, owes some of its tenderest
touches to the most striking scenes in Cymbeline,

The relation of these two plays, to the present play, as
well as certain striking resemblances between scenes and
situations in Cymbeline and Macbeth (e.g. Act II. ii., com-
pared with Macbeth, Act II.*), have led to the conjecture
that some portions of the work were written as early as
1606-7, th^ whole being completed in 1609-10; one
scholar assigns to the former date Act II. Sc. i., and Act
V. Sc. ii.-v.f Another scholar J calls attention to a change
of treatment to be found in the character of Cloten; in
the earlier scenes " he is a mere fool " (e.g. I. iii., II. i.) ;
in the later " he is by no means deficient in manliness, and
the lack of his counsel is regretted by the King in Act
IV. Sc. i." He finds in Act III. Sc. v. corroboration of
his view, pointing out that the prose part is a subsequent
insertion, having some slight discrepancies with the older
parts of the scene. According to this view the story of
Cymbeline and his sons, the tribute, etc., in the last three
acts, was written at an earlier time, in i6o6.§

More important than these questionable theories are
the unmistakable links connecting Cymbeline with the
Shakespearian fragment of Pericles, with The Tempest,
and especially with The Winter's Tale — the crowning
glories of the close of the Poet's literary life; what the

* Some of the parallels are certainly noteworth}'^ ; thus, the
reference to Tarquin (11. 12-14) recalls ' TarquiWs ravishing
strides ' (Macb., II i. 55, 56) ; " lac'd with blue of heaven's own
iinct" (11. 22, 22,) may be compared with Duncan's * silver skin
laced with his golden blood' (Macb., II. iii. 118), etc.

t G. M. Ingleby (cp. his edition of " Cymbeline/' 1886).

t F. G. Fleay.

§ Cp. "A Chronicle History of the Life and Works of William
Shakespeare"

Preface CYMBELINE

present writer has said of one of these may be said of all :
" On all of them his gentle spirit seems to rest ; " Timon
the Misanthrope ' no longer delights him ; his visions are
of human joy — scenes of forgiveness, reconciliation, and
peace — a world where father is re-united with child,
husband with wife, brother with brother, friend with
friend. Like his own Miranda, Shakespeare in these Ro-
mances again finds the world beautiful : —

' O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in 't! '

Perhaps, after all, John Heminge and Henry Condell
knew what they were about, when, in defiance of chro-
nology and of their own classification, they opened their
precious Folio with the wonders of Prospero's enchanted
island, and closed it with ' the divine comedy * of ' Pos-
thumus and Imogen/

Sources of the Plot. The main plot of the play is the
love-story of Posthumus and Imogen : this theme, with
the famous * wager-mo/?/ ^ and the * chest intrigue,' is set
in a framework of pseudo- British History, and blended
with episodes belonging to that mythical epoch.

I. The Historical Elenient. So far as the names of
the British King ( whose reign was contemporary with the
birth of Christ), his two sons, and stepson, are con-
cerned, the historical element was derived from Holin-
shed's Chronicles of England (Bk. III.; ch. xiii.-xviii.) ;
some few meagre incidents were taken from the same
source, notably the original of Posthumus's account of the
battle, and of his description of the changed fortunes of
the fight, summed up in * a narrow lane, an old man, and
two boys/ The source of this episode is found in Holin-
shed's History of Scotland, near the chapters dealing with
the story of Macbeth.

CYMBELINE Preface

The mere name of the heroine is also to be found in
HoHnshed's account of ancient British story; but it is
clear that Shakespeare was already familiar with the name
when engaged on Much Ado About Nothing; in the
opening stage-direction of this play *' Innogen " is actu-
ally mentioned as " the wife of Leonato."

II. The Story of Imogen. The story of Imogen was
derived, directly or indirectly, from the Decamerone of
Boccaccio ; it is one of the Second Day Stories, " wherein
was discoursed of those who after being baffled by divers
chances have won at last of a joyful issue beyond their
hope." The Ninth Story tells " how Bernabo of Genoa,
duped by Ambrogiulo, loseth his good and commandeth
that his innocent wife be put to death. She escapeth and
serveth the Soldan in a man's habit. Here she lightethi
upon the deceiver of her husband and bringeth the latter
to Alexandria, where her traducer being punished, she
resumeth woman's apparel and returneth with her hus-
band, rich,"

This rough outline of the plot, at the head of Boccac-
cio's story, indicates, somewhat at least, how far Shake-
speare's version departs from the Italian. Shakespeare
may have read the story as told in the Decamerone, but
there were many other renderings of the theme, which,
perhaps originally belonging to Byzantine literature,
found a place in Old French Romance and Drama long
before it reached Italy ; in all probability " The Romance
of the Violet" by Gerbert de Montruil, circa 122^, was
the source of Boccaccio's novel.

From the French, rather than from the Italian, were
derived the oldest German and Scandinavian stories of
" The Four Merchants; or, The Virtuous Wife." Some
such English variant of the Imogen story was probably
current in England in the sixteenth century, and may
account for certain features of the play; e.g. the intro-
duction in Act I. Sc. iv. of the representatives of the four

Cymbeline

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CYMBELINE

TIMON OF ATHENS

WILLIAM
SHAKE SPE ARE

^\^ Introductions,
Notes, Glossary,

Critical Comments,
and Method of Study

THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY

NEW YORK

Comments CYMBELINE

own, he would scarcely have left London so soon. Yet
the probability is that he must just about this time have
gained some clear and personal insight into an ideal
love. In the public sphere, too, it is not unlikely that
Arabella Stuart's undaunted passion for Lord William
Seymour, so cruelly punished by King James, may have
afforded the model for Imogen's devotion to Posthumus
in defiance of the will of King Cymbeline.

Brandes : William Shakespeare.

IV.

Posthumus.

The design of the play evidently required that Posthu-
mus should be kept in the background. For he could
not be in the foreground without staying beside Imogen ;
staying there, he could not be cheated out of his faith in
her; in which case there would be no chance for the
trial and proof of her constancy. Hence the necessity
of putting so much respecting him into the mouths of
the other persons; and certainly their tongues are rich
enough in praise of him. It was no easy thing to carry
him through the part assigned him in the play, without
disqualifying overmuch the lady's judgement in choos-
ing him; and the Poet manifestly labours somewhat to
plant such second-hand impressions of him as may se-
cure the vindication of her choice in our thoughts. For
he clearly meant that her wisdom and insight, as ap-
proved in other things, should serve to us as a pledge
and guaranty of his worth ; that " by her election should
be truly read what kind of man he is." And not the
least of his merits as an artist is the skill he has in
making his characters so utter themselves as at the
same time to mirror one another. And so here, being
forced either to withdraw Posthumus from our imme-
diate view, or else to set him before us in a somewhat

CYMBELINE Comments

unfavourable light, the best thing he could do, was to give
us a reflection of him from Imogen; and if that reflec-
tion, confirmed as it is by others, be not enough, there
was no help for it; it was the best that the nature of the
case admitted of. And surely it were something bold in
any man to wage his own judgement in a matter of this
kind against such a woman's as Imogen; for, as Camp-
bell says, " she hallows to the imagination every thing
that loves her, and that she loves in return."

Still we can hardly keep quit of the suspicion, that his
high credit with her and others is partly owing to the
presence of such a foil as Clot en, in comparison with
whom he is an angel of a man indeed. And at all events
one cannot choose but wish that the Poet had made
him hold out a little more firmly against the forged or
stolen evidences of his wife's infidelity, and keep his
faith at least till the last and strongest item was pro-
duced. It is observable, that the Poet represents his
very fulness of confidence at first as rendering him all
the more liable to the reverse in the contingency that
is to arrive: because he is perfectly sure that no proofs
of success can be shown by lachimo, therefore, when
some such proofs are shown, he falls the more readily
into the opposite state. And this, undoubtedly, is in the
right line of nature. For to shake the confidence of
such a man in such a case is to invert it all into distrust
at once. The character of Posthumus is crowned with
a liberal measure of redemption in the latter part of the
play. After his revenge, as he believes, has been taken,
his exceeding bitterness of remorse and penitence turn
our revenge into pity; for his experience presses home
to our hearts as well as his own, that, "though those
who are betray'd do feel the treason sharply, yet the
traitor stands in worse case of woe " ; and his perse-
vering quest of death finally repeals the feeling which
we should otherwise be apt to have, that death were
none too bad for him.

Hudson : The Works of Shafees\)eaTc,

Comments CYMBELINE

V.
Cloten.

Life at court is beset with treacherous quicksands.
The king is stupid, passionate, perpetually misguided;
the queen is a wily murderess ; and between them stands
her son, Cloten, one of Shakespeare's most original
figures, a true creation of genius, without a rival in all
the Poet's long gallery of fools and dullards. His
stupid inefficiency and undisguised malignity have
nothing in common with his mother's hypocritical and
supple craft; he takes after her in worthlessness alone.

For the sake of an inartistic stage effect, Shakespeare
has endowed him with a bodily frame indistinguishable
from that of the handsome Posthumus, leaving it to his
head alone to express the world-wide difference between
them. But how admirably has the Poet characterised
the dolt and boor by making him shoot forth his words
with an explosive stammer! With profound humour
and delicate observation, he has endowed him with the
loftiest notions of his own dignity, and given him no
shadow of doubt as to his rights. There are no bounds
to his vanity, his coarseness, his bestiality. If words
could do it, not a word of his but would wound others
to the quick. And not only his words, but his intents
are of the most malignant; he would outrage Imogen at
Milford Haven and " spurn her home " to her father.
His stupidity, fortunately, renders him less dangerous,
and with delicate art Shakespeare has managed to make
him from first to last produce a comic effect, thereby
softening the painful impression of the portraiture. We
take pleasure in him as in Caliban, whom he foreshad-
ows, and who had the same designs upon Miranda as
he upon Imogen. We might even describe Caliban as
Cloten developed into a type, a symbol.

Brandes : William Shakespeare.
16

CYMBELINE Comments

VI.

The Royal Pair.

The Queen — whose guilty machinations threaten to
be the ruin of Posthumus, who holds the reins of gov-
ernment in her own hands, and has the intention of
directing the fortunes of all, in accordance with her own
resolves — lives to see all her plans thwarted, and in the
end herself falls a victim to the destructive power of her
own wickedness. Cymbeline, the husband, father and
king — ^who is more or less directly affected by the com-
plications in the lives of all the others, hence as it
were, the point where all the radii of the wide circle
meet, and from which they in the first instance proceed,
and upon whom everything turns although he himself
appears the least active — forms the quiescent centre of
the action, and in his undutiful lassitude and passive-
ness regulates the fortunes of all, but is ultimately
obliged to take all their fortunes upon himself. The
drama, therefore, very justly bears his name.

Ulrici: Shakspeare's Dramatic Art,

VII.

lachimo and Pisanio.

The part of lachimo illustrates, though not on a very
large scale, Shakespeare's peculiar science and learned
dealing in the moral constitution of man. At our first
meeting with lachimo, he is in just that stage of moral
sickness, that he must be worse before he can be better;
and in his sharp practice on the wager his disease
reaches the extreme point which, even because it is
extreme, starts a process of moral revolution within
him; setting him to a hard diet of remorse and repent-
ance, and conducting him through these to renovation
and health. So that his treachery is one o( \.Vvos>^ Vax^^

Comments CYMBELINE

overdoses of crime which sometimes have the effect of
purging off men's criminality. Such is the cunning
leechcraft of nature: out of men's vices she hatches
scorpions to lash and sting them into virtue.

Those who think poetry dwells more in the palace
than the cottage, and that Shakespeare is apt to post-
pone the rights of untitled manhood in favour of con-
ventional aristocracy, may be sent to school to Pisanio;
who is, socially, the humblest person in the drama, yet
his being is " all compact " of essential heroism. His
action shows not one self-regarding thought or purpose ;
he alone seems to live and breathe purely for others.
And what shrewdness, what forecast, what fertility of
beneficence there is in him! His character is lifted into
the highest region of poetry by his oblivion of self; and
even those whom he serves derive much of their poetry
from his self-forgetting, incorruptible loyalty to them.

Hudson : The Works of Shakespeare.

VIII.
Guiderius and Arviragus.

The two Princes, Guiderius and Arviragus, both edu-
cated in the wilds, form a noble contrast to Miranda
and Perdita. Shakspeare is fond of showing the su-
periority of the natural over the artificial. Over the art
which enriches nature, he somewhere says, there is a
higher art created by nature herself. As Miranda's un-
conscious and unstudied sweetness is more pleasing
than those charms which endeavour to captivate us by
the brilliant embellishments of a refined cultivation, so
in these two youths, to whom the chase has given vigour
and hardihood, but who are ignorant of their high
destination, and have been brought up apart from human
society, we are equally enchanted by a naive heroism
which leads them to anticipate and to dream of deeds
o§ valour, till an occasion is offered which they are

CYMBELINE Comments

irresistibly compelled to embrace. When Imogen comes
in disguise to their cave; when, with all the innocence
of childhood, Guiderius and Arviragus form an impas-
sioned friendship for the tender boy, in whom they
neither suspect a female nor their own sister; when, on
their return from the chase, they find her dead, then
" sing her to the ground,'' and cover the grave with
flowers: — ^these scenes might give to the most deadened
imagination a new life for poetry. If a tragical event is
only apparent in such case, whether the spectators are
already aware of it or ought merely to suspect it, Shak-
speare always knows how to mitigate the impression
without weakening it: he makes the mourning musical,
that it may gain in solemnity what it loses in serious-
ness.
ScHLEGEL : Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature,

IX.
Elements and Construction.

If Cymbeline is deliberately detached from history,
his queen and their children transport us into manifest
faerie. The evil stepmother, with her malign beauty,
culling the poison-flowers '' while yet the dew 's on the
ground,'' is a witch manqueCy a Medea not quite perfect
in her part; her clownish son is a Caliban made slightly
more human and considerably more vulgar; Imogen,
with all her added wealth of mind and heart, yet clearly
betrays the lineaments of the peerless princess whom
the malign stepmother pursues and good fairies defend;
while the whole episode of her life in the cave with her
unknown brothers, her seeming death and burial, dif-
fers from the Mdrchen of Schneewittchen (" Little Snow-
white ") only as the poetry which moves wholly within
the human sphere and is wrought out in dramatic detail
and imaginative phrase differs from the naive poetry
of the fairy tale. The evil stepmother provide,^ \v^\

Comments CYMBELINE

" poison " by the aid of a physician ; the kindly dwarfs
become valiant young hunters, and Schneewittchen's
crystal coffin becomes a woodland bed of flowers and
moss lightly sprinkled on the face of the seeming dead.
It can hardly be denied that these several elements of
story are not quite faultlessly wrought together. The
complex mechanism of the plot is lubricated by a free
use of happy coincidences and fortuities, and explained
by conversations and soliloquies which serve merely to
explain it. It is even possible to maintain that the mot-
ley contrast of the interwoven motives has here and
there infected the characters; — that Cloten, more par-
ticularly, as he appears in the council of war, is a person
of more distinction than the clownish wooer of Imogen
and butt of the court wits. As in all the plays of this
latest group, mechanical coherence of plot is treated
with apparent nonchalance, even character is displayed
rather in detached moments than with that subtle power
of exhibiting its gradual evolution or decay which con-
tributes so much to the fascination of Hamlet or Othello
or Antony and Cleopatra; but these moments are illu-
minated with a dramatic vision so intense and a poetry
so poignantly beautiful, that the less intrinsic move-
ments of the play sink into a subordination of effect in
which their incoherences are lost sight of. In the sub-
ject-matter with which they deal we cannot sharply
divide the so-called Romances from the Tragedies ; they
all deal with tragic harms ; both Cymbeline and The
Winter's Tale sound several chords of the theme of
Othello. But, in the first place, the tragic action is
briefer and simpler, less desperate in its outlook, less
harrowing in its course; and, in the second, there open
out of it vistas of a reposeful and healing seclusion on
the one side, of remorse and atonement on the other,
which finally converge in scenes of reconciliation and
forgiveness.

Herford : The Eversley Shakespeare.

CYMBELINE Comments

The play is not merely a series of beautiful pictures,
or interesting episodes, such as we are accustomed to
find in the productions of dramatists of less renown.
Here, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, everything is sub-
servient to the development of character. From this
point of view every scene contributes its share to the
denouement, nor is there any falling oflf observable in
the power of the artist; the master-hand is as discern-
ible in these latest creations as in those of any earlier
period. And he has put forth all his strength on the
central figure of the drama, the matchless Imogen, to
speak of whom is to sing one long paean of praise, and
whose very name is as full of music as her voice. In her
is to be found everything that makes woman lovable,
and there is no situation in which she is placed which
does not reveal some fresh beauty in her character.

Evans : Henry Irving Shakespeare.

In Cymbeline we may note what has presented itself in
the plays of admitted inferiority, a recurrence of hints
of motive and character that are fully worked out in
more perfect pieces. This is sometimes an anticipation,
but sometimes a memory; and possibly the appearance
that lachimo is a first idea of lago, and Posthumus the
crude conception of the passion of Othello, as Cymbeline
of the weakness and tyranny of Lear, may be but falla-
cious. Indeed, the thought has sometimes occurred
to me, that Shakespeare indulged himself designedly in
this drama in playing with the same motives in less
severe combination, and in falling back for relief, after
the tension of his great tragic actions, upon the milder
harmonies that might be evoked as truly from the self-
same themes.

Lloyd : Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

Cymbeline, king of Britain.
Cloten, son to the Queen by a former husband.
PosTHUMUS Leonatus, a gentleman, husband to Imogen.
Belarius^ a banished lord, disguised under the name of
Morgan.

GuiDERius ] ^^^^ ^^ Cymbeline, disguised under the
' \ names of Polydore and Cadwal, sup-
Arviragus, ] p^^^^ ^^„^ ^^ Morgan.

Philario, friend to Posthumus, ,

Italians.

Iachimo, friend to Philario, )

Caius Lucius, General of the Roman forces.

PiSANio, servant to Posthumus.

Cornelius, a physician.

A Roman Captain.

Two British Captains.

A Frenchman, friend to Philario.

Two Lords of Cymbeline's Court.

Two Gentlemen of the same.

Two Gaolers.

Queen, wife to Cymbeline.

Imogen, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen.

Helen, a lady attending on Imogen.

Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, a Soothsayer, a Dutch-
man, a Spaniard, Musicians, Officers, Captains, Soldiers,
Messengers, and other Attendants.

Apparitions.

Scene: Britain: Rome.

CYMBELINE.

ACT FIRST.
Scene I.

Britain. The garden of Cymbeline's palace.
Enter two Gentlemen.

First Gent. You do not meet a man but frowns : our
bloods
No more obey the heavens than our courtiers
Still seem as does the king.

Sec. Gent. But what *s the matter ?

First Gent. His daughter, and the heir of 's kingdom,
whom
He purposed to his wife's sole son — a widow
That late he married — hath referred herself
Unto a poor but worthy gentleman : she 's wedded ;
Her husband banished ; she imprisoned : all
Is outward sorrow ; though I think the king
Be touched at very heart.

Sec. Gent. None but the king? lo

First Gent. He that hath lost her too : so is the queen,
That most desired the match : but not a courtier,
Although they wear their faces to the bent
Of the king's looks, hath a heart that is not
Glad at the thing they scowl at.

Sec. Gent. And why so ?

First Gent. He that hath miss'd the princess is a thing
Too bad for bad report : and he that hath her,

Act I. Sc. i. CYMBELINE

I mean, that married her, — alack, good man ! —

And therefore banish'd, is a creature such

As, to seek through the regions of the earth 20

For one his like, there would be something failing

In him that should compare. I do not think

So fair an outward and such stuff within

Endows a man but he.

Sec, Gent, You speak him far.

First Gent, I do extend him, sir, within himself,

Crush him together rather than unfold

His measure duly.

Sec. Gent. What 's his name and birth ?

First Gent, I cannot delve him to the root : his father
Was caird Sicilius, who did join his honour
Against the Romans with Cassibelan, 30

But had his titles by Tenantius, whom
He served with glory and admired success,
So gain'd the sur-addition Leonatus :
And had, besides this gentleman in question,
Two other sons, who in the wars o' the time
Died with their swords in hand; for which their

father.
Then old and fond of issue, took such sorrow
That he quit being, and his gentle lady.
Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceased
As he was bom. The king he takes the babe 40

To his protection, calls him Posthumus Leonatus,
Breeds him and makes him of his bed-chamber :
Puts to him all the learnings that his time
Could make him the receiver of ; which he took,
As we do air, fast as 'twas minister'd.
And, in 's spring became a harvest : lived in court —

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. i.

Which rare it is to do — most praised, most loved :
A sample to the youngest, to the more mature
A glass that feated them, and to the graver
A child that guided dotards ; to his mistress, 50

For whom he now is banishM, her own price
Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue ;
By her election may be truly read
What kind of man he is.

Sec, Gent, I honour him

Even out of your report. But, pray you, tell me,
Is she sole child to the king?

First Gent, His only child.

He had two sons, — if this be worth your hearing,
Mark it, — the eldest of them at three years old,
I' the swathing clothes the other, from their nursery
Were stolen, and to this hour no guess in knowledge
Which way they went.

Sec. Gent, How long is this ago? 61

First Gent, Some twenty years.

Sec. Gent, That a king's children should be so conveyed !
So slackly guarded ! and the search so slow.
That could not trace them !

First Gent, Howsoever 'tis strange,

Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at,
Yet is it true, sir.

Sec. Gent. I do well believe you.

First Gent, We must forbear : here comes the gentleman.
The queen and princess. [Exeunt,

Enter the Queen, Posthumus and Imogen,

Queen. No, be assured you shall not find me, daughter, 70
After the slander of most stepmolVv^t%,

Act I. Sc. i. CYMBELINE

Evil-eyed unto you : you 're my prisoner, but
Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys
That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthumus,
So soon as I can win the offended king,
I will be known your advocate : marry, yet
The fire of rage is in him, and 'twere good
You lean'd unto his sentence with what patience
Your wisdom may inform you.

Post. Please your highness,

I will from hence to-day.

Queen. You know the peril. 80

I '11 fetch a turn about the garden, pitying
The pangs of barr'd affections, though the king
Hath charged you should not speak together. [Exit.

Imo. • O

Dissembling courtesy ! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds ! My dearest husband,
I something fear my father's wrath ; but nothing —
Always reserved my holy duty — what
His rage can do on me : you must be gone.
And I shall here abide the hourly shot
Of angry eyes, not comforted to live, 90

But that there is this jewel in the world
That I may see again.

Post. My queen ! my mistress !

O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause
To be suspected of more tenderness
Than doth become a man ! I will remain
The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth :
My residence in Rome at one Philario's,
Who to my father was a friend, to me
Known but by letter : thither write, my queen, ,

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. i.

And with mine eyes I *11 drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

Re-enter Queen,

Queen. Be brief, I pray you : loi

If the king come, I shall incur I know not
How much of his displeasure. [Aside] Yet I '11

move him
To walk this way : I never do him wrong
But he does buy my injuries, to be friends ;
Pays dear for my offences. [Exit

Post. Should we be taking leave

As long a term as yet we have to live.
The loathness to depart would grow. Adieu !

hno. Nay, stay a little :

Were you but riding forth to air yourself, no

Such parting were too petty. Look herq, love ;
This diamond was my mother's : take it, heart ;
But keep it till you woo another wife.
When Imogen is dead.

Post. How, how ! another ?

You gentle gods, give me but this I have,
And sear up my embracements from a next
With bonds of death! [Putting on the ring.] Re-
main, remain thou here
While sense can keep it on ! And, sweetest, fairest,
As I my poor self did exchange for you
To your so infinite loss, so in our trifles 120

I still win of you : for my sake wear this :
It is a manacle of love ; I '11 place it
Upon this fairest prisoner.

[Putting a bracelet on ker atm,

Act I. Sc. i. CYMBELINE

I mo, O the gods !

When shall we see again ?

Enter Cymheline and Lords,

Post, Alack, the king!

Cym, Thou basest thing, avoid ! hence, from my sight !
If after this command thou fraught the court
With thy unworthiness, thou diest : away !
Thou 'rt poison to my blood.

Post. The gods protect you,

And bless the good remainders of the court !
I am gone. [Exit,

I mo. There cannot be a pinch in death 130

More sharp than this is.

Cym. O disloyal thing.

That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap'st

A year's age on me !
Imo. I beseech you, sir.

Harm not yourself with your vexation :

I am senseless of your wrath ; a touch more rare

Subdues all pangs, all fears.
Cym. I*2LSt grace ? obedience ?

Imo. Past hope, and in despair ; that way, past grace.
Cym. That mightst have had the sole son of my queen !
Imo. O blessed, that I might not ! I chose an eagle,

And did avoid a puttock. 140

Cym. Thou took'st a beggar; wouldst have made my
throne

A seat for baseness.
Imo. No ; I rather added

A lustre to it.

O thou vile one !

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. i.

Imo. Sir,

It is your fault that I have loved Posthumus :
You bred him as my playfellow, and he is
A man worth any woman, overbuys me
Almost the sum he pays.

Cym. What, art thou mad !

Into. Almost, sir : heaven restore me ! Would I were
A neat-herd's daughter, and my Leonatus
Our neighbour-shepherd's son !

Cym. Thou foolish thing! 150

Re-enter Queen.

They were again together : you have done
Not after our command. Away with her.
And pen her up.

Queen. Beseech your Patience. Peace,

Dear lady daughter, peace ! Sweet sovereign,
Leave us to ourselves, and make yourself some com-
fort
Out of your best advice.

Cym. Nay, let her languish

A drop of blood a day ; and, being aged.
Die of this folly ! [Exeunt Cymbeline and Lords.

Queen. Fie ! you must give way.

Enter Pisanio.

Here is your servant. How now, sir ! What news ?
Pis. My lord your son drew on my master.
Queen. Ha! 160

No harm, I trust, is done?
Pis. There might have been.

But that my master rather play'd than fought,

And had no help of anger : they were p^.t\.^^

Act I. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

By gentlemen at hand.
Queen. I am very glad on 't.

Into, Your son 's my father's friend ; he takes his part.

To draw upon an exile ! O brave sir 1

I would they were in Af ric both together ;

Myself by with a needle, that I might prick

The goer-back. Why came you from your master ?
Pis, On his command : he would not suffer me 170

To bring him to the haven : left these notes

Of what commands I should be subject to

When 't pleased you to employ me.
Queen. This hath been

Your faithful servant :. I dare lay mine honour

He will remain so.
Pis. I humbly thank your highness.

Queen. Pray, walk awhile.

Imo. About some half-hour hence,

I pray you, speak with me : you shall at least
* Go see my lord aboard : for this time leave me.

[Exeunt

Scene IL

The same. A public place.
Enter Cloten and two Lords.

First Lord. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt ;
the violence of action hath made vou reek as a
sacrifice; where air comes out, air comes in:
there 's none abroad so wholesome as that you
vent.

Clo. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have .
I hurt him?

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. ii.

Sec. Lord, [Aside] No, faith; not so much as his

patience.
First Lord, Hurt him ! his body 's a passable carcass, lo

if he be not hurt : it is a thoroughfare for steel,

if it be not hurt.
Sec. Lord. [Aside]^ His steel was in debt; it went o'

the backside the town.
Clo, The villain would not stand me.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] No, but he fled forward still,

toward your face.
First Lord. Stand you ! You have' land enough of

your own ; but he added to your having ; gave

you some ground. 20

Sec. Lord. [Aside] As many inches as you have

oceans. Puppies !
Clo. I would they had not come between us.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] So would I, till you had measured

how long a fool you were upon the ground.
Clo. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse

me!
Sec. Lord. [Aside] If it be a sin to make a true

election, she is damned.
First Lord. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and

her brain go not together : she 's a good sign, 30

but I have seen small reflection of her wit.
Sec. Lord. [Aside] She shines not upon fools, lest

the reflection should hurt her.
Clo. Come, I '11 to my chamber. Would there had

been some hurt done !
Sec. Lord. [Aside] I wish not so ; unless it had been

the fall of an ass, which is no great hurt.
Clo. You '11 go with us ?
First Lord. I '11 attend your lordship,

Act I. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Clo. Nay, come, let *s go together. 40

Sec. Lord. Well, my lord. [Exeunt

Scene III.

A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter Imogen and Pisanio.

Imo. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' the haven
And question'dst every sail : if he should write
And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost,
As offered mercy is. What was the last
That he spake to thee ?

Pis. It was, his queen, his queen !

Imo. Then waved his handkerchief?

Pis. And kiss'd it, madam.

Imo. Senseless linen ! happier therein than I !
And that was all ?

Pis. No, madam ; for so long

As he could make me with this eye or ear
Distinguish him from others, he did keep 10

The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief,
Still waving, as the fits and stirs of 's mind
Could best express how slow his soul sailed on,
How swift his ship.

Imo. Thou shouldst have made him

As little as a crow, or less, ere left
To after-eye him.

Pis. Madam, so I did.

Imo. I would have broke mine eye-strings, crack'd them,
but
To look upon him, till the diminution
Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle ;
Nay, followed him, till he had melted from 20

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. iv.

The smallness of a gnat to air ; and then

Have turn'd mine eye, and wept. But, good Pisanio,

When shall we hear from him ?

Pis. Be assured, madam,

With his next vantage.

Into. I did not take my leave of him, but had

Most pretty things to say : ere I could tell him

How I would think on him at certain hours.

Such thoughts and such ; or I could make him swear

The shes of Italy should not betray

Mine interest and his honour ; or have charged him,

At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, 31

To encounter me with orisons, for then

I am in heaven for him ; or ere I could

Give him that parting kiss which I had set

Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father,

And, like the tyrannous breathing of the north.

Shakes all our buds from growing.

Enter a Lady.

Lady. The queen, madam^

Desires your highness' company.
I mo. Those things I bid you do, get them dispatched.

I will attend the queen.
Pis; Madam, I shall. [Exeunt. 40

Scene IV.

Rome. Philario's house.

Enter Philario, lachimo, a Frenchman, a Dutchman,

and a Spaniard.

lack. Believe it, sir, I have seen him in Britain : he
was then of a crescent note; expected to prove

Act I. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

so worthy as since he hath been allowed the name
of : but I could then have looked on him without
the help of admiration, though the catalogue of
his endowments had been tabled by his side and
I to peruse him by items.

Phi. You speak of him when he was less furnished
than now he is with that which makes him both
without and within. lo

French. I have seen him in France: we had very
many there could behold the sun with as firm
eves as he.

lach. This matter of marrying his king's daughter,
wherein he must be weighed rather by her value
than his own, words him, I doubt not, a great
deal from the matter.

French. And then his banishment.

lach. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep

this lamentable divorce under her colours are 20
wonderfully to extend him ; be it but to fortify
her judgement, which else an easy battery might
lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality.
But how comes it he is to sojourn with you?
how creeps acquaintance ?

Phi. His father and I were soldiers together; to.
whom I have been often bound for no less than
my. life. Here comes the Briton : let him be so
entertained amongst you as suits, with gentlemen
of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality. 30

Enter Posthumus.

I beseech you all, be better known to this
gentleman; whom I commend to you as «

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. iv.

noble friend of mine: how worthy he is I will

leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him

in his own hearing.
French, Sir, we have known together in Orleans.
Post. Since when I have been debtor to you for

courtesies, which I will be ever to pay and yet

pay still.

French. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness : I was 40
glad I did atone my countryman and you ; it had
been pity you should have been put together
with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, upon
importance of so slight and trivial a nature.

Post. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young
traveller; rather shunned to go even with what
I heard than in my every action to be guided by
others' experiences: but upon my mended
judgement — if I offend not to say it is mended —
my quarrel was not altogether slight. 50

French. Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of
swords, and by such two that would, by all like-
lihood, have confounded one the other, or have
fallen both.

lach. Can we with manners ask what was the
difference ?

French. Safely, I think : 'twas a contention in public,
which may without contradiction suffer the re-
port. It was much like an argument that fell
out last night, where each of us fell in praise of
our country mistresses ; this gentleman at that 60
time vouching — and upon warrant of bloody
affirmation — his to be more fair, virtuous, wise,
chaste, constant-qualified and less attemptable
than any the rarest of our ladies in France.

Act I. Sc. iv. CYMBELINl

lach. That lady is not now living, or this gentleman's
opinion, by this, worn out.

Post. She holds her virtue still and I my mind.

lach. You must not so far prefer her 'fore ours of
Italy.

Post, Being so far provoked as I was in France, I 7
would abate her nothing, though I profess my-
self her adorer, not her friend.

lach. As fair and as good — a kind of hand-in-hand
comparison — had been something too fair and
too good for any lady in Britany. If she went
before others I have seen, as that diamond of
yours outlustres many I have beheld, I could
not but believe she excelled many: but I have
not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor
you the lady. 8(

Post. I praised her as I rated her : so do I my stone.

lach. What do you esteem it at ?

Post, More than the world enjoys.

lach. Either your unparagoned mistress is dead, or
she 's outprized by a trifle.

Post. You are mistaken: the one may be sold or
given, if there were wealth enough for the
purchase or merit for the gift: the other is
not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the
gods. 9(

lach. Which the gods have given you !

Post. Which, by their graces, I will keep.

lach. You may wear her in title yours: but, you
know, strange fowl light upon neighbouring
ponds. Your ring may be stolen too: so your
brace of unprizable estimations, the one is but

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. iv.

frail and the other casual; a cunning thief, or
a that way accomplished courtier, would hazard
the winning both of first and last.

Post. Your Italy contains none so accomplished a loo
courtier to convince the Jionour of my mistress ;
if, in the holding or loss of that, you term her
frail. I do nothing doubt you have store of
thieves ; notwithstanding, I fear not my ring.

Phi. Let us leave here, gentlemen.

Post. Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior,
I thank him, makes no stranger of me; we are
familiar at first.

lach. With five times so much conversation, I should

get ground of your fair mistress, make her go no
back even to the yielding, had I admittance and
opportunity to friend.

Post. No, no.

lach. I dare thereupon pawn the moiety of my estate
to your ring, which in my opinion o'er-values it
something : but I make my wager rather against
your confidence than her reputation : and, to bar
your offence herein too, I durst attempt it against
any lady in the world.

Post. You are a great deal abused in too bold a per- 120
suasion, and I doubt not you sustain what you 're
worthy of by your attempt.

lach. What's that?

Post. A repulse : though your attempt, as you call it,

deserve more ; a punishment too.
Phi. Gentlemen, enough of this: it came in too

suddenly; let it die as it was bom, and, I pray

you, be better acquainted.

Act I. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

lack. Would I had put my estate and my neighbour's

on the approbation of what I have spoke ! 130

Post. What lady would you choose to assail ?

loch. Yours; whom in constancy you think stands
so safe. I will lay you ten thousand ducats to
your ring, that, commend me to the court where
your lady is, with no more advantage than the
opportunity of a second conference, and I will
bring from thence that honour of hers which you
imagine so reserved.

Post. I will wage against your gold, gold to it : my

ring I hold dear as my finger ; 'tis part of it. 140

lach. You are afraid, and therein the wiser. If you
buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot
preserve it from tainting: but I see you have
some religion in you, that you fear.

Post. This is but a custom in your tongue ; you bear
a graver purpose, I hope.

lach. I am the master of my speeches, and would
undergo what 's spoken, I swear.

Post. Will you? I shall but lend my diamond till

your return: let there be covenants drawn be- 150
tween 's ; my mistress exceeds in goodness the
hugeness of your unworthy thinking : I dare you
to this match : here 's my ring.

Phi. I will have it no lay.

lach. By the gods, it is one. If I bring you no
sufficient testimony that I have enjoyed the
dearest bodily part of your mistress, my ten
thousand ducats are yours ; so is your diamond
too : if I come off, and leave her in such honour
as you have trust in, she your jewel, this your 160

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. v.

jewel, and my gold are yours ; provided I have
your commendation for my more free entertain-
ment.

Post, I embrace these conditions ; let us have articles
betwixt us. Only, thus far you shall answer:
if you make your voyage upon her, and give me
directly to understand you have prevailed, I am
no further your enemy; she is not worth our
debate: if she remain unseduced, you not
making it appear otherwise, for your ill opinion 170
and the assault you have made to her chastity,
you shall answer me with your sword.

lach. Your hand; a covenant: we will have these
things set down by lawful counsel, and straight
away from Britain, lest the bargain should catch
cold and starve : I will fetch my gold, and have
our two wagers recorded.

Post, Agreed. [Exeunt Posthnmiis and lachimo,

French. Will this hold, think you ?

Phi. Signior lachimo will not from it. Pray let us 180
follow 'em. [Exeunt,

Scene V.

Britain, A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter Queen, Ladies, and Cornelius,

Queen. Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those
flowers ;
Make haste : who has the note of them ?

First Lady, I madam.

Queen, Dispatch. [Exeunt Ladies,

Now, master doctor, have you brought those drugs ?

Act I. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Cor, Pleaseth your highness, ay : here they are, madam :

{Presenting a small box.
But I beseech your grace, without offence, —
My conscience bids me ask — wherefore you have
Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds,
Which are the movers of a languishing death,
But, though slow, deadly.

Queen. I wonder, doctor, lo

Thou ask'st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long ? Hast thou not leam'd me how
To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections ? Having thus . far proceeded, —
Unless thou think'st me devilish — is 't not meet
That I did amplify my judgement in
Other conclusions ? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging, but none human.
To try the vigour of them and apply 21

Allayments to their act, and by them gather
Their several virtues and effects.

Cor. Your highness

Shall from this practice but make hard your heart :
Besides, the seeing these effects will be
Both noisome and infectious.

Queen. O, content thee.

Enter Pisanio.

[Aside] Here comes a flattering rascal ; upon him
Will I first work : he 's for his master,
And enemy to my son. How now, Pisanio !
Doctor, your service for this time is ended ; 30

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. v.

Take your own way.

Cor. {Aside] I do suspect you, madam ;

But you shall do no harm.

Queen. [To Pisanio] Hark thee, a word.

Cor. [Aside] I do not like her. She doth think she has
Strange lingering poisons : I do know her spirit.
And will not trust one of her malice with
A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile ;
Which first, perchance, she 11 prove on cats and dogs.
Then afterward up higher : but there is
No danger in what show of death it makes. 40

More than the locking up the spirits a time.
To be more fresh, reviving. She is fooFd
With a most false effect ; and I the truer,
So to be false with her.

Queen. No further service, doctor.

Until I send for thee.

Cor. I humbly take my leave. [Exit.

Queen. Weeps she still, say'st thou ? Dost thou think in
time
She will not quench and let instructions enter
Where folly now possesses ? Do thou work :
When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son,
I '11 tell thee on the instant thou art then 50

As great as is thy master ; greater, for
His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name
Is at last gasp : return he cannot, nor
Continue where he is : to shift his being
Is to exchange one misery with another.
And every day that comes comes to decay
A day's work in him. What shalt thou expect,

Act I. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

To be depender on a thing that leans,
Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends,
So much as but to prop him ! [ The Queen drops the
box: Pisanio takes it up,] Thou takest up 60
Thou know'st not what ; but take it for thy labour :
It is a thing I made, which hath the king
Five times redeemed from death : I do not know
What is more cordial : nay, I prithee, take it ;
It is an earnest of a further good
That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how
The case stands with her ; do 't as from thyself.
Think what a chance thou changest on ; but think
Thou hast thy mistress still, to boot, my son,
Who shall take notice of thee : I '11 move the king
To any shape of thy preferment, such 71

As thou 'It desire ; and then myself, I chiefly.
That set thee on to this desert, am bound
To load thy merit richly. Call my women :
Think on my words. [Exit Pisanio.

A sly and constant knave ;
Not to be shaked : the agent for his master ;
And the remembrancer of her to hold
The hand- fast to her lord. I have given him that
Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her
Of liegers for her sweet ; and which she after, 80
Except she bend her humour, shall be assured
To taste of too.

Re-enter Pisanio with Ladies.

So, so ; well done, well done :
The violets, cowslips, and the primroses,
Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pisanio ;

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. vi.

Think on my words. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies.
Pis. And shall do :

But when to my good lord I prove untrue,

I '11 choke myself : there 's all I 'U do for you. [Exit

Scene VI.

The same. Another room in the palace.

Enter Imogen alone.

Into. A father cruel, and a step-dame false ;
A foolish suitor to a wedded lady,
That hath her husband banish'd ; — O, that husband !
My supreme crown of grief ! and those repeated
Vexations of it ! Had I been thief-stol'n,
As my two brothers, happy ! but most miserable
Is the desire that *s glorious : blest be those.
How mean soe'er, that hath their honest wills.
Which seasons comfort. Who may this be ? Fie !

Enter Pisanio and lachimo.

Pis. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome, lo

Comes from my lord with letters.
lach. Change you, madam ?

The worthy Leonatus is in safety,

And greets your highness dearly. [Presents a letter.
Imo. Thanks, good sir :

You Ve kindly welcome.
lach. [Aside^ All of her that is out of door most rich !

If she be fumish'd with a mind so rare.

She is alone the Arabian bird, and I

Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend !

Arm me, audacity, from head to foot I

Act I. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight ; 20

Rather, directly fly.
Into, [Reads] ' He is one of the noblest note, to whose

kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon
him accordingly, as you value your trust —

* Leonatus.'
So far I read aloud :
But even the very middle of my heart
I» warm'd by the rest, and takes it thankfully.
You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I
Have words to bid you, and shall find it so 30

In all that I can do.

lach. Thanks, fairest lady

What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes
To see this vaulted arch and the rich crop
Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt
The fiery orbs above and the twinned stones
Upon the number'd beach, and can we not
Partition make with spectacles so precious
'Twixt fair and foul ?

I mo. What makes your admiration ?

lach. It cannot be i' the eye ; for apes and monkeys,

'Twixt two such shes, would chatter this way and

Contemn with mows the other: nor i' the judge-
ment ; 41

For idiots, in this case of favour, would

Be wisely definite : nor i' the appetite ;

Sluttery, to such neat excellence opposed.

Should make desire vomit emptiness.

Not so allured to feed.

Imo. What is the matter, trow ?

lach. The cloyed will,

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. vi

That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub

Both fiird and running, ravening first the lamb,

Longs after for the garbage.
Into, What, dear sir, 50

Thus raps you ? Are you well ?
lach. Thanks, madam ; well.

[To Pisanio] Beseech you, sir,

Desire my man's abode where I did leave him :

He 's strange and peevish.
Pis. I was going, sir.

To give him welcome. [Exit.

Into. Continues well my lord? His health, beseech you?

lach. Well, madam.

Into. Is he disposed to mirth ? I hope he is.

lach. Exceeding pleasant ; none a stranger there

So merry and so gamesome : he is calFd 60

The Briton reveller.

Into, When he was here

He did incline to sadness, and oft-times
Not knowing why.

lach. I never saw him sad.

There is a Frenchman his companion, one
An eminent monsieur, that, it seems, much loves
A Gallian girl at home : he furnaces
The thick sighs from him ; whiles the jolly Briton,
Your lord, I mean, laughs from 's free lungrs, cries

'O,
Can my sides hold, to think that man, who knows
By history, report, or his own proof, 70

What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose
But must be, will his free hours languish for
Assured bondage? '

Imo. Will my lord say so?

Act I. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

lach. Ay, madam ; with his eyes in flood with laughter
It is a recreation to be by
And hear him mock the Frenchman. But, heavens

know,
Some men are much to blame.

Into, Not he, I hope.

lach. Not he : but yet heaven's bounty towards him might
Be used more thankfully. In himself 'tis much ;
In you, which I account his beyond all talents, 80
Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound
To pity too.

Imo. What do you pity, sir ?

lach. Two creatures heartily.

Imo» Am I one, sir?

You look on me : what wreck discern you in me
Deserves your pity ?

lach. Lamentable ! What,

To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace
r the dungeon by a snuff?

Imo, I pray you, sir.

Deliver with more openness your answers
To my demands. Why do you pity me ?

lach. That others do, 90

I was about to say, enjoy your But

It is an office of the gods to venge it.
Not mine to speak on 't.

Imo. You do seem to know

Something of me, or what concerns me : pray you, —
Since doubting things go ill often hurts more
Than to be sure they do ; for certainties
Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing.
The remedy then born, — discover to me

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. vi.

What both you spur and stop.

lach. Had I this cheek

To bathe my lips upon ; this hand, whose touch, lOO

Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul

To the oath of loyalty ; this object, which

Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,

Fixing it only here ; should I, damn'd then.

Slaver with lips as common as the stairs

That mount the Capitol ; join gripes with hands

Made hard with hourly falsehood — falsehood, as

With labour ; then by-peeping in an eye

Base and unlustrous as the smoky light

That 's fed with stinking tallow ; it were fit i lo

That all the plagues of hell should at one time

Encounter such revolt.

I mo. My lord, I fear.

Has forgot Britain.

lach. And himself. Not I

Inclined to this intelligence pronounce
The beggary of his change, but 'tis your graces
That from my mutest conscience to my tongue
Charms this report out.

Imo. Let me hear no more.

lack. O dearest soul, your cause doth strike my heart
With pity, that doth make me sick ! A lady
So fair, and fastened to an empery, 120

Would make the greatest king double, to be partnered
With tomboys hired with that self exhibition
Which your own coffers yield ! with diseased ventures
That play with all infirmities for gold
Which rottenness can lend nature ! such boil'd stuff
As well might poison poison ! Be revenged,

Act I. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

Or she that bore you was no queen and you
Recoil from your great stock.

Into, Revenged !

How should I be revenged ? If this be true, —
As I have such a heart that both mine ears 130

Must not in haste abuse, — if it be true,
How should I be revenged?

lach. Should he make me

Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets,
Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,
In your despite, upon your purse ? Revenge it.
I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure.
More noble than that runagate to your bed,
And will continue fast to your affection,
Still close as sure.

I mo. What ho, Pisanio !

lach. Let me my service tender on your lips. 140

Jmo, Away ! I do condemn mine ears that have

So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable.

Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not

For such an end thou seek'st, as base as strange.

Thou wrongest a gentleman who is as far

From thy report as thou from honour, and

Solicit'st here a lady that disdains

Thee and the devil alike. What ho, Pisanio !

The king my father shall be made acquainted

Of thy assault : if he shall think it fit 150

A saucy stranger in his court to mart

As in a Romish stew, and to expound

His beastly mind to us, he hath a court

He little cares for, and a daughter who

He not respects at all. What ho, Pisanio !

CYMBELINE Act I. Sc. vi.

lach. O happy Leonatus ! I may say :
The credit that thy lady hath of thee
Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness
Her assured credit. Blessed live you long !
A lady to the worthiest sir that ever i6o

Country call'd his ! and you his mistress, only
For the most worthiest fit ! Give me your pardon.
I have spoke this to know if your affiance
Were deeply rooted, and shall make your lord
That which he is new o'er : and he is one
The truest manner'd, such a holy witch
That he enchants societies into him ;
Half all men's hearts are his.

Into. You make amends.

lach. He sits 'mongst men like a descended god :

He hath a kind of honour sets him off, 170

More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
Most mighty princess, that I have adventured
To try your taking of a false report, which hath
Honoured with confirmation your great judgement
In the election of a sir so rare.
Which you know cannot err. The love I bear him
Made me to fan you thus,, but the gods made you.
Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon.

Into. All 's well, sir : take my power i' the court for yours.

lach. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot 180

To entreat your grace but in a small request.
And yet of moment too, for it concerns
Your lord ; myself and other noble friends
Are partners in the business.

Fmo. Pray, what is 't?

lach. Some dozen Romans of us, and your lord —

Act I. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

The best feather of our wing — ^have mingled sums

To buy a present for the emperor ;

Which I, the factor for the rest, have done

In France : 'tis plate of rare device and jewels

Of rich and exquisite form, their values great ; 190

And I am something curious, being strange.

To have them in safe stowage : may it please you

To take them in protection?

Jmo, Willingly ;

And pawn mine honour for their safety : since
My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
In my bedchamber.

lach. They are in a trunk,

Attended by my men : I will make bold
To send them to you, only for this night ;
I must aboard to-morrow.

Into, O, no, no.

lach. Yes, I beseech ; or I shall short my word 200

By lengthening my return. From Gallia
I crossed the seas on purpose and on promise
To see your grace.

Imo. I thank you for your pains :

But not away to-morrow !

lach, O, I must, madam :

Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please
To greet your lord with writing, do 't to-night :
I have outstood my time, which is material
To the tender of our present.

Imo. I will write.

Send your trunk to me ; it shall safe be kept
And truly yielded you. You 're very welcome. 210

[Exeunt.

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. i.

ACT SECOND.
Scene I.

Britain. Before Cymbeline's palace.
Enter Cloten and two Lords.

Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I
kissed the jack, upon an up-cast to be hit
away ! I had a hundred pound on 't : and then
a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for
swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him,
and might not spend them at my pleasure.

First Lord. What got he by that ? You have broke
his pate with your bowl.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] If his wit had been like him that

broke it, it would have run all out. lo

Clo. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not
for any standers-by to curtail his oaths, ha?

Sec. Lord. No, my lord ; [Aside] nor crop the ears of
them.

Clo. Whoreson dog ! I give him satisfaction ? Would
he had been one of my rank !

Sec. Lord. [Aside] To have smelt like a fool.

Clo. I am not vexed more at any thing in the earth :
a pox on 't ! I had rather not be so noble as I
am ; they dare not fight with me, because of the 20
queen my mother: every Jack-slave hath his
bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down
like a cock that nobody can match.

Sec. Lord. [Aside] You are cock and capon too;
and you crow, cock, with your comb on.

Clo. Sayest thou?

Act II. Sc. i. CYMBELINE

Sec, Lord. It is not fit your lordship should under-
take every companion that you give offence to.

Clo, No, I know that: but it is fit I should commit

offence to my inferiors. 30

Sec, Lord. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only.

Clo, Why, so I say.

First Lord, Did you hear of a stranger that 's come
to court to-night?

Clo, A stranger, and I not know on 't !

Sec, Lord, [Aside] He 's a strange fellow himself,
and knows it not.

First Lord, There 's an Italian come, and 'tis thought,
one of Leonatus' friends.

Clo, Leonatus ! a banished rascal ; and he 's another, 40
whatsoever he be. Who told you of this
stranger ?

First Lord, One of your lordship's pages.

Clo, Is it fit I went to look upon him? is there no
derogation in 't ?

Sec, Lord, You cannot derogate, my lord.

Clo, Not easily, I think.

Sec, Lord, [Aside] You are a fool granted ; there-
fore your issues, being foolish, do not derogate.

Clo, Come, I '11 go see this Italian : what I have lost 50
to-day at bowls I '11 win to-night of him. Come,

go-
Sec, Lord. I '11 attend your lordship.

[Exeunt Cloten and First Lord.
That such a crafty devil as is his mother
Should yield the world this ass ? a woman that
Bears all down with her brain ; and this her son
Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart,

CYMBELINE Act U. Sc. li.

And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess,

Thou divine Imogen, what thou endurest,

Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govem'd, 60

A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer

More hateful than the foul expulsion is

Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act

Of the divorce he 'Id make ! The heavens hold firm

The walls of thy dear honour ; keep unshaked

That temple, thy fair mind ; that thou mayst stand,

To enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land !

[Exit.

Scene II.

Imogen's bedchamber in Cymbeline's palace:
a trunk in one corner of it,

Imogen in bed, reading; a Lady attending,

Imo. Who 's there ? my woman Helen ?

Lady, Please you, madam.

Imo, What hour is it?

Lady, Almost midnight, madam.

Imo, I have read three hours then : mine eyes are weak :
Fold down the leaf where I have left : to bed :
Take not away the taper, leave it burning ;
And if thou canst awake by four o' the clock,
I prithee, call me. Sleep hath seized me wholly.

[Exit Lady,
To your protection I commend me, gods !
From fairies and the tempters of the night
Guard me, beseech ye ! 10

[Sleeps, lachimo comes from the trunk,

lach. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense

Act IL Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus

Did softly press the rushes, ere he waken'd

The chastity he wounded. Cytherea,

How bravely thou becomest thy bed ! fresh lily !

And whiter than the sheets ! That I might touch

But kiss ; one kiss ! Rubies unparagon'd,

How dearly they do 't ! Tis her breathing that

Perfumes the chamber thus : the flame o' the taper

Bows toward her, and would under-peep her lids 20

To see the unclosed lights, now canopied

Under those windows, white and azure, laced

With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design.

To note the chamber : I will write all down :

Such and such pictures ; there the window ; such

The adornment of her bed ; the arras, figures,

Why, such and such ; and the contents o' the story.

Ah, but some natural notes about her body

Above ten thousand meaner moveables

Would testify, to enrich mine inventory. 30

O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her !

And be her sense but as a monument.

Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come gff :

[Taking off her bracelet.
As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard !
'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly.
As strongly as the conscience does within.
To the madding of her lord. On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops
r the bottom of a cowslip : here 's a voucher,
Stronger than ever law could make : this secret 40
Will force him think I have picked the lock and ta'en
The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end ?

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. iii.

Why should I write this down, that 's riveted,
Screwed to my memory ? She hath been reading late
The tale of Tereus ; here the leaf 's turned down
Where Philomel gave up. I have enough :
To the trunk again, and shut the spring of it.
Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning
May bare the raven's eye ! I lodge in fear ;
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here. 50

[Clock strikes.
One, two, three : time, time !

[Goes into the trunk. The scene closes.

Scene III.

An ante-chamber adjoining Imogen's apartments.
Enter Cloten and Lords.

First Lord. Your lordship is the most patient man in

loss, the most coldest that ever turned up ace.
Clo. It would make any man cold to lose.
First Lord. But not every man patient after the noble

temper of your lordship. You are most hot and

furious when you win.
Clo. Winning will put any man into courage. If I

could get this foolish Imogen, I should have gold

enough. It 's almost morning, is 't not ?
First Lord. Day, my lord. 10

Clo. I would this music would come : I am advised

to give her music o' mornings ; they say it will

penetrate.

Enter Musicians.

Come on ; tune : if you can penetrate her with
your fingering, so ; we '11 try with tongue too : if

Act II. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

none will do, let her remain : but I '11 never give
o'er. First, a ver\- excellent good-conceited
thing ; after, a wonderful sweet air, with admir-
able rich words to it : and then let her consider.

Song.

Hark, hark ! the lark at heaven's gate sings, 20

And Phoebus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies ;
And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes ;
With every thing that pretty is.

My lady sweet, arise :
Arise, arise!

Clo, So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will 30
consider your music the better: if it do not, it
is a vice in her ears, which horse-hairs and
calves'-guts, nor the voice of unpaved eunuch to
boot, can never amend. [Exeunt Musicians,

Sec, Lord, Here comes the king.

Clo, I am glad I was up so late; for that 's the rea-
son I was up so early : he cannot choose but take
this service I have done fatherly.

Enter Cymbeline and Queen,

Good morrow to your majesty and to my gra-
cious mother. 40

Cym, Attend you here the door of our stem daugh-
ter? Will she not forth?

Clo, I have assailed her with music, but she vouch-
safes no notice.

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. iii.

Cym, The exile of her minic«i is too new ;

She hath not yet forgot him : some more time
Must wear the print of his remembrance out,
And then she 's yours.

Queen, You are most bound to the king,

Who lets go by no vantages that may
Prefer you to his daughter. Frame yourself 50

To orderly soliciting, and be friended
With aptness of the season ; make denials
Increase your services ; so seem as if
You were inspired to do those duties which
You tender to her ; that you in all obey her,
Save when command to your dismission tends.
And therein you are senseless.

Clo, Senseless! not so.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess, So like you, sir, ambassadors from Rome ;
The one is Caius Lucius.

Cym, A worthy fellow,

Albeit he comes on angry purpose now ; 60

But that 's no fault of his : we must receive him
According to the honour of his sender ;
And towards himself, his goodness forespent on us.
We must extend our notice. Our dear son.
When you have given good morning to your mistress.
Attend the queen and us ; we shall have need
To employ you towards this Roman. Come, our
queen. [Exeunt all but Cloten.

Clo, If she be up, I '11 speak with her ; if not,

Let her lie still and dream. By your leave, ho !

Act II. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

I know her women are about her: what 70

If I do line one of their hands? 'Tis gold

Which buys admittance ; oft it doth ; yea, and makes

Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up

Their deer to the stand o' the stealer ; and 'tis gold

Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief ;

Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man : what

Can it not do and undo? I will make

One of her women lawyer to me, for

I yet not understand the case myself.

By your leave. [Knocks, 80

Enter a Lady,

Lady. Who 's there that knocks ?

Clo, A gentleman.

Lady, No more?

Clo. Yes, and a gentlewoman's son.

Lady. That 's more

Than some whose tailors are as dear as yours

Can justly boast of. What 's your lordship's pleas-
ure?
Clo. Your lady's person : is she ready ?
Lady. Ay,

To keep her chamber.
Clo. There is gold for you ;

Sell me your good report.
Lady. How ! my good name ? or to report of you

What I shall think is good ? The princess !

[Exit Lady,

Enter Imogen.

Clo. Good morrow, fairest : sister, your sweet hand. . 90
Imo, Good morrow, sir. You lay out too much pains
For purchasing but trouble : the thanks I g^ve

CYMBELINE Act IL Sc. iii.

Is telling you that I am poor of thanks
And scarce can spare them.

Clo. Still I swear I love you.

I mo. If you but said so, 'twere as deep with me:
If you swear still, your recompense is still
That I regard it not.

Clo, This is no answer.

Into. But that you shall not say I yield being silent,
I would not speak. I pray you, spare me : faith,
I shall unfold equal discourtesy loo

To your best kindness : one of your great knowing
Should learn, being taught, forbearance.

Clo. To leave you in your madness, 'twere my sin :
I will not.

Imo. Fools are not mad folks.

Clo, Do you call me fool?

I mo. As I am mad, I do :

If you '11 be patient, I '11 no more be mad ;

That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir,

You put me to forget a lady's manners

By being so verbal : and learn now for all no

That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce,

By the very truth of it, I care not for you,

And am so near the lack of charity —

To accuse myself — I hate you ; which I had rather

You felt than make 't my boast.

Clo. You sin against

Obedience, which you owe your father. For
The contract you pretend with that base wretch.
One bred of alms and foster'd with cold dishes.
With scraps o' the court, it is no contract, none :
And though it be allow'd in meaner parties — 120

Act II. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Yet who than he more mean ? — to knit their souls
On whom there is no more dependency
But brats and beggary, in self-figured knot ;
Yet you are curb'd from that enlargement by
The consequence o' the crown, and must not soil
The precious note of it with a base slave,
A hilding for a livery, a squire's cloth,
A pantler, not so eminent.

Imo, Profane fellow !

Wert thou the son of Jupiter, and no more
But what thou art besides, thou wert too base 130
To be his groom : thou wert dignified enough.
Even to the point of envy, if 'twere made
Comparative for your virtues to be styled
The under-hangman of his kingdom, and hated
For being preferr'd so well.

Clo, The south-fog rot him!

Imo. He never can meet more mischance than come
To be but named of thee. His meanest garment,
That ever hath but clipped his body, is dearer
In my respect than all the hairs above thee, 139

Were they all made such men. How now, Pisanio !

Enter Pisanio,

Clo, ^ His garment ! ' Now, the devil —

Imo. To Dorothy my woman hie thee presently,-^

Clo. ' His garment ! '

Imo. I am sprited with a fool.

Frighted and anger'd worse : go bid my woman

Search for a jewel that too casually

Hath left mine arm : it was thy master's : 'shrew me.

If I would lose it for a revenue

CYMBELINE Act IL Sc. iv.

Of any king's in Europe ! I do think

I saw 't this morning : confident I am

Last night 'twas on mine arm ; I kiss'd it : 150

I hope it be not gone to tell my lord

That I kiss aught but he.

Pis, 'Twill not be lost.

I mo. I hope so : go and search. [Exit Pisanio.

Clo. You have abused me :

' His meanest garment ! '

I mo. Ay, I said so, sir:

If you will make 't an action, call witness to 't.

Clo. I will inform your father.

Imo. Your mother too :

She 's my good lady, and will conceive, I hope,
But the worst of me. So, I leave you, sir.
To the worst of discontent. [Exit,

Clo, I '11 be revenged :

* His meanest garment ! ' Well. [Exit, 160

Scene IV.

Rome, Philario's house.
Enter Post humus and Philario,

Post, Fear it not, sir : I would I were so sure
To win the king as I am bold her honour
Will remain hers.

Phi. What means do you make to him ?

Post. Not any ; but abide the change of time ;

Quake in the present winter's state, and wish
That warmer days would come : in these fear'd hopes,
I barely gratify your love ; they failing,
I must die much your debtor.

Act II. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

Phi. Your very goodness and your company

Overpays all I can do. By this, your king lo

Hath heard of great Augustus : Caius Lucius
Will do 's commission throughly : and I think
He '11 grant the tribute, send the arrearages,
Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance
Is yet fresh in their grief.

Post. I do believe,

Statist though I am none, nor like to be.
That this will prove a war ; and you shall hear
The legions now in Gallia sooner landed
In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings
Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen 20
Are men more order'd than when Julius Caesar
Smiled at their lack of skill, but found their courage
Worthy his frowning at : their discipline.
Now mingled with their courages, will make known
To their approvers they are people such
That mend upon the world.

Enter lachimo.

Phi. See! lachimo!

Post. The swiftest harts have posted you by land,

And winds of all the corners kiss'd your sails,

To make your vessel nimble.
Phi. Welcome, sir.

Post. I hope the briefness of your answer made 30

The speediness of your return.

lach. Your lady

Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon.

Post. And therewithal the best, or let her beauty
Look through a casement to allure false hearts,

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. iv.

And be false with them.

lach. Here are letters for you.

Post, Their tenour good, I trust.

lach. 'Tis very like.

Phi, Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court
When you were there?

lack. He was expected then,

But not approached.

Post All is well yet.

Sparkles this stone as it was wont ? or is 't not 40
Too dull for your good wearing?

lack, K I had lost it,

I should have lost the worth of it in gold.
I '11 make a journey twice as far, to enjoy
A second night of such sweet shortness which
Was mine in Britain ; for the ring is won.

Post, The stone 's too hard to come by.

lach. Not a whit,

Your lady being so easy.

Post, Make not, sir.

Your loss your sport : I hope you know that we
Must not continue friends.

lach. Good sir, we must.

If you keep covenant. Had I not brought 50

The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant
We were to question farther : but I now
Profess myself the winner of her honour.
Together with your ring, and not the wronger
Of her or you, having proceeded but
By both your wills.

Post, If you can make 't apparent

That you have tasted her in bed, my hand

Act II. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

And ring is yours : if not, the foul opinion

You had of her pure honour gains or loses

Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both 60

To who shall find them.

lach. Sir, my circumstances,

Being so near the truth as I will make them,
Must first induce you to believe : whose strength
I will confirm with oath ; which, I doubt not.
You '11 give me leave to spare, when you shall find
You need it not.

Post. Proceed.

lach. First, her bedchamber, —

Where, I confess, I slept not, but profess
Had that was well worth watching, — it was hang'd
With tapestry of silk and silver ; the story
Proud Cleopatra, when she met her Roman, 70

And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for
The press of boats or pride : a piece of work
So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive
In workmanship and value ; which I wonder'd
Could be so rarely and exactly wrought.
Since the true life on 't was —

Post. This is true ;

And this you might have heard of here, by me.
Or by some other.

lach. More particulars

Must justify my knowledge.

Post. So they must.

Or do your honour injury.

lach. The chimney 80

Is south the chamber ; and the chimney-piece.
Chaste Dian bathing ; never saw I figures

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. iv.

So likely to report themselves : the cutter
Was as another nature, dumb ; outwent her,
Motion and breath left out.

Post. This is a thing

Which you might from relation likewise reap.
Being, as it is, much spoke of.

lack. The roof o' the chamber

With golden cherubins is fretted : her andirons —
I had forgot them — were two winking Cupids
Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely 90

Depending on their brands.

Post. This is her honour!

Let it be granted you have seen all this, — and praise
Be given to your remembrance — ^the description
Of what is in her chamber nothing saves
The wager you have laid.

lach. Then, if you can,

[Shozving the bracelet.
Be pale : I beg but leave to air this jewel ; see !
And now 'tis up again : it must be married
To that your diamond ; I '11 keep them.

Post. Jove !

Once more let me behold it : is it that

Which I left with her?
lack. Sir, — I thank her — that : 100

She stripped it from her arm ; I see her yet ;

Her pretty action did outsell her gift,

And yet enrich'd it too : she gave it me

And said she prized it once.
Post. May be she pluck'd it off

To send it me.
lach. She writes so to you, doth she ?

Act II. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

Post. O, no, no, no ! *tis true. Here, take this too ;

[Gives the ring.

It is a basilisk unto mine eye.

Kills me to look on 't. Let there be no honour

Where there is beauty; truth, where semblance;
love,

Where there 's another man : the vows of women

Of no more bondage be to where they are made 1 1 1

Than they are to their virtues ; which is nothing.

O, above measure false!
Phi, Have patience, sir,

And take your ring again ; 'tis not yet won :

It may be probable she lost it, or

Who knows if one of her women, being corrupted.

Hath stol'n it from her?
Post. Very true ;

And so, I hope, he came by 't. Back my ring :

Render to me some corporal sign about her

More evident than this ; for this was stol'n. 120

lach. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm.
Post, Hark you, he swears ; by Jupiter he swears.

'Tis true : — nay, keep the ring — 'tis true : I am sure

She would not lose it : her attendants are

All sworn and honourable : — ^they induced to steal it !

And by a stranger ! — No, he hath enjoy'd her :

The cognizance of her incontinency

Is this: she hath bought the name of whore thus
dearly.

There, take thy hire ; and all the fiends of hell

Divide themselves between you !
Phi, Sir, be patient: 130

This is not strong enough to be believed

Of one persuaded well of —
Post, Never talk on 't ;

CYMBELINE Act II. Sc. iv.

She hath been colted by him.

lach. If you seek

For further satisfying, under her breast —
Worthy the pressing — lies a mole, right proud
Of that most delicate lodging : by my life,
I kiss'd it, and it gave me present hunger
To feed again, though full. You do remember
This stain upon her?

Post, Ay, and it doth confirm

Another stain, as big as hell can hold, 140

Were there no more but it.

lach. Will you hear more?

Post. Spare your arithmetic ; never count the turns ;
Once, and a million !

lach. I *11 be sworn —

Post. No swearing.

If you will swear you have not done 't you lie.
And I will kill thee if thou dost deny
Thou 'st made me cuckold.

la^h. I '11 deny nothing.

Post. O, that I had her here, to tear her limb-meal !
I will go there and do 't : i' the court ; before
Her father. I '11 do something — [Exit.

Phi. Quite besides

The government of patience ! You have won : 1 50
Let *s follow him and pervert the present wrath
He hath against himself.

lack. With all my heart. [Exeunt.

Act II. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Scene V.

Another room in Philario's house.

Enter Posthumus,

Post, Is there no way for men to be, but women
Must be half- workers ? We are all bastards ;
And that most venerable man which I
Did call my father, was I know not where
When I was stamped ; some coiner with his tools
Made me a counterfeit : yet my mother seem'd
The Dian of that time : so doth my wife
The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance !
Me of my lawful pleasure she restrained,
And pray'd me oft forbearance ; did it with lo

A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on 't
Might well have warm'd old Saturn ; that I thought

her
As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils !
This yellow lachimo, in an hour, — was 't not ? —
Or less, — at first? — perchance he spoke not, but
Like a full-acorn 'd boar, a German one,
Cried * O ! ' and mounted ; found no opposition
But what he look'd for should oppose and she
Should from encounter guard. Could I find out
The woman's part in me ! For there 's no motion 20
That tends to vice in man but I affirm
It is the woman's part : be it lying, note it.
The woman's ; flattering, hers ; deceiving, hers ;
Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers ; revenges, hers ;
Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain,
Nice longing, slanders, mutability,
AU faults that may be named, nay, that hell knows,

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. i.

Why, hers, in part or all, but rather all ;

For even to vice

They are not constant, but are changing still 30

One vice, but of a minute old, for one

Not half so old as that. I '11 write against them.

Detest them, curse them : yet 'tis greater skill

In a true hate, to pray they have their will :

The very devils cannot plague them better. [Exit.

ACT THIRD.
Scene 1.

Britain. A hall in Cymbeline's palace.

Enter in state, Cymbeline, Queen, Cloten, and Lords at
one door, and at another, Caius Lucius, and Attend-
ants.

Cym. Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us ?

Luc. When Julius Caesar, whose remembrance yet
Lives in men's eyes and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever, was in this Britain
And conquered it, Cassibelan, thine uncle, —
Famous in Caesar's praises, no whit less
Than in his feats deserving it — for him
And his succession granted Rome a tribute,
Yearly three thousand pounds ; which by thee lately
Is left untender'd. .

Queen, And, to kill the marvel, 10

Shall be so ever.

Clo. There be many Caesars

Ere such another Julius. Britain is
A world by itself, and we will nothing pay
For wearing our own noses.

Act 111. Sc. i. CYMBELINE

Queen. That opportunity,

Which then they had to take from 's, to resume
We have again. Remember, sir, my liege,
The kings your ancestors, together with
The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters, 20

With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats.
But suck them up to the topmast. A kind of con-
quest

Caesar made here ; but made not here his brag
Of ' Came, and saw, and overcame ' : with shame —
The first that ever touch'd him — he was carried
From off our coast, twice beaten ; and his shipping —
Poor ignorant baubles ! — on our terrible seas.
Like egg-shells moved upon their surges, crack'd
As easily 'gainst our rocks : for joy whereof
The famed Cassibelan, who was once at point — 30
O giglot fortune ! — to master Caesar's sword.
Made Lud's town with rejoicing fires bright
And Britons strut with courage.

Clo, Come, there 's no more tribute to be paid : our
kingdom is stronger than it was at that time;
and, as I said, there is no moe such Caesars:
other of them may have crooked noses, but to
owe such straight arms, none.

Cym, Son, let your mother end.

Clo. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard 40
as Cassibelan : I do not say I am one ; but I have
a hand. Why tribute? why should we pay
tribute ? If Caesar can hide the sun from us with
a blanket, or put the moon in his pocket, we will

CYMBELINE Act 111. Sc. i.

pay him tribute for light; else, sir, no more
tribute, pray you now.

Cym. You must know.

Till the injurious Romans did extort
This tribute from us, we were free : Caesar's ambition,
Which sweird so much that it did almost stretch 50
The sides o' the world, against all colour here
Did put the yoke upon 's ; which to shake off
Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon
Ourselves to be.

Clo, and Lords. We do.

Cym. Say then to Caesar,

Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which
Ordain'd our laws, whose use the sword of Caesar
Hath too much mangled ; whose repair and franchise
Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed.
Though Rome be therefore angry. Mulmutius made

our laws.
Who was the first of Britain which did put 60

His brows within a golden crown, and call'd
Himself a king.

Luc. I am sorry, Cymbeline,

That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar —
Caesar, that hath moe kings his servants than
Thyself domestic officers — ^thine enemy :
Receive it from me, then : war and confusion
In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee : look
For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied,
I thank thee for myself.

Cym. Thou art welcome, Caius.

Thy Caesar knighted me ; my youth I spent 70

Much under him ; of him I gathered honovit \

Act 111. Sc. ii. CYMBELI^

Which he to seek of me again, perforce,
Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect
That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for
Their Hberties are now in arms ; a precedent
Which not to read would show the Britons cold :
So Caesar shall not find them.
Luc. Let proof speak.

Clo. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime
with us a day or two, or longer: if you seek
us afterwards in other terms, you shall find us in
our salt-water girdle: if you beat us out of it,
it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our
crows shall fare the better for you ; and there 's
an end.

Luc, So, sir.

Cym. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine :
All the remain is ' Welcome.' [Exeu

Scene II.

Another room in the palace.

Enter Pisanio, with a letter.

Pis, How ! of adultery ? Wherefore write you not
What monster 's her accuser ? Leonatus !
O master ! what a strange infection
Is fairn into thy ear ! What false Italian,
As poisonous-tongued as handed, hath prevailed
On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal! No:
She 's punish' d for her truth, and undergoes.
More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults
As would take in some virtue. O my master !
Thy mind to her is now as low as were

:YMBELINE Act 111. Sc. ii.

Thy fortunes. How! that I should murder her?

Upon the love and truth and vows which I

Have made to thy command ? I, her ? her blood ?

If it be so to do good service, never

Let me be counted serviceable. How look I,

That I should seem to lack humanity

So much as this fact comes to? [Reading] *Do't:

the letter
That I have sent her, by her own command
Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper!
Black as the ink that 's on thee ! Senseless bauble.
Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st 21

So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes.
I am ignorant in what I am commanded.

Enter Imogen.

Itno. How now, Pisanio!

Pis. Madam, here is a letter from my lord.

/mo. Who ? thy lord ? that is my lord Leonatus !
0, learn'd indeed were that astronomer
That knew the stars as I his characters ;
He 'Id lay the future open. You good gods.
Let what is here contained relish of love, 30

Of my lord's health, of his content, yet not
That we two are asunder ; let that grieve him :
Some griefs are medicinable ; that is one of them.
For it doth physic love : of his content.
All but in that! Good wax, thy leave. Blest be
You bees that make these locks of counsel ! Lovers
And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike :
Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet
You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods !

Act 111. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

[Reads] ' Justice, and your father's wrath, 40
should he take me in his dominion, could not be
so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of creatures,
would even renew me with your eyes. Take
notice that I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven :
what your own love will out of this advise you,
follow. So he wishes you all happiness, that
remains loyal to his vow, and your, increasing in
love,

'Leonatus Posthumus.'

O, for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio?
He is at Milford-Haven : read, and tell me 51

How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs
May plod it in a week, why may not I
Glide thither in a day ? Then, true Pisanio, —
Who long' St, like me, to see thy lord ; who long'st
O, let me bate, — ^but not like me — ^yet long'st,
But in a fainter kind : — O, not like me ;
For mine 's beyond beyond : say, and speak thick, —
Love's counsellor should fill the pores of hearing,
To the smothering of the sense — how far it is 60
To this same blessed Milford : and by the way
Tell me how Wales was made so happy as
To inherit such a haven : but, first of all,
How we may steal from hence : and for the gap
That we shall make in time, from our hence-going
And our return, to excuse : but first, how get hence.
Why should excuse be bom or ere begot !
We '11 talk of that hereafter. Prithee, speak,
How many score of miles may we well ride
'Twixt hour and hour?

Pis. One score 'twixt sun and sun, 70

CYMBELINE Act 111. Sc. iii.

Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too.

Into. Why, one that rode to 's execution, man,

Could never go so slow : I have heard of ridine

wagers.
Where horses have been nimbler than the sands
That run i' the clock's behalf. But this is foolery :
Go bid my woman feign a sickness, say
She '11 home to her father : and provide me presently
A riding-suit, no costlier than would fit
A franklin's housewife.

Pis. Madam, you 're best consider.

Into. I see before me, man : nor here, nor here, 80

Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them,
That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee ;
Do as I bid thee : there 's no more to say ;
Accessible is none but Milford way. [Exeunt.

Scene III.

Wales: a mountainous country with a cave.

Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.

Bel. A goodly day not to keep house with such

Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: this

gate
Instructs you how to adore the heavens, and bows

you
To a morning's holy office : the gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbans on, without
Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven !
We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

Act 111. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Gui. Hail, heaven!

Arv. Hail, heaven!

Bel. Now for our mountain sport: up to yond hill! lo
Your legs are young: I'll tread these flats. Coii-

sider,
When you above perceive me like a crow,
That it is place which lessens and sets off :
And you may then revolve what tales I have told

vou
Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war :
This service is not service, so being done,
But being so allow'd : to apprehend thus.
Draws us a profit from all things we see ;
And often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold 20

Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life
Is nobler than attending for a check.
Richer than doing nothing for a bauble,
Prouder than rustling in unpaid- for silk :
Such gain the cap of him that makes 'em fine.
Yet keeps his book uncrossed : no life to ours.

Guu Out of your proof you speak : we, poor unfledged,
Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor know

not
What air 's from home. Haply this life is best
If quiet life be best, sweeter to you 30

That have a sharper known, well corresponding
With your stiff age : but unto us it is
A cell of ignorance, travelling a-bed,
A prison for a* debtor that not dares
To stride a limit.

Arv, What should we speak of

When we are old as you? when we shall hear

■ 76

CYMBELINE Act 111. Sc. iii.

The rain and wind beat dark December, how

In this our pinching cave shall we discourse

The freezing hours away ? We have seen nothing :

We are beastly ; subtle as the fox for prey, 40

Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat :

Our valour is to chase what flies ; our cage

We make a quire, as doth the prison'd bird,

And sing our bondage freely.

Bel. How you speak !

Did you but know the city's usuries,
And felt them knowingly : the art o' the court.
As hard to leave as keep ; whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery that
The fear 's as bad as falling : the toil o' the war,
A pain that only seems to seek out danger 50

r the name of fame and honour, which dies i' the

search.
And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph
As record of fair act ; nay, many times.
Doth ill deserve by doing well ; what 's worse.
Must court'sy at the censure : — O boys, this story
The world may read in me • my body 's marked
With Roman swords, and my report was once
First with the best of note : Cymbeline loved me ;
And when a soldier was the theme, my name
Was not far off : then was I as a tree 60

Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but in one

night,
A storm, or robbery, call it what you will.
Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves.
And left me bare to weather,
^wt. Uncertain favovitl

Act 111. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Bel, My fault being nothing, as I have told you oft,
But that two villains, whose false oaths prevailed
Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline
I was confederate with the Romans ; so
Follow'd my banishment ; and this twenty years
This rock and these demesnes have been my world :
Where I have lived at honest freedom, paid 71

More pious debts to heaven than in all
The fore-end of my time. But up to the mountains !
This is not hunters' language : he that strikes
The venison first shall be the lord o' the feast ;
To him the other two shall minister;
And we will fear no poison, which attends
In place of greater state. I '11 meet you in the val-
levs.

[Exeunt Guiderius and Arviragus,

How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature !
These boys know little they are sons to the king ; 80
Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive.
They think they are mine: and though train'd up

thus meanly
r the cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit
The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them
In simple and low things to prince it much
Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore,
The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who
The king his father call'd Guiderius, — ^Jove !
When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell
The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out 90
Into my story : say ' Thus mine enemy fell.
And thus I set my foot on 's neck,' even then
The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats.
Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. iv.

That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal,

Once Arviragus, in as like a figure

Strikes life into my speech and shows much more

His own conceiving. Hark, the game is roused !

O Cymbeline ! heaven and my conscience knows

Thou didst unjustly banish me : whereon, lOO

At three and two years old, I stole these babes,

Thinking to bar thee of succession as

Thou reft'st me of my lands. Euriphile,

Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their

mother,
And every day do honour to her grave :
Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd.
They take for natural father. The game is up.

[Exit.

Scene IV.

Country near Milford-Haven,
Enter Pisanio and Imogen.

Jmo, Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the

place
Was near at hand : ne'er long'd my mother so
To see me first, as I have now. Pisanio ! man !
Where is Posthumus ? What is in thy mind,
That makes thee stare thus ? Wherefore breaks that

sigh
From the inward of thee ? One but painted thus
Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd
Beyond self-explication : put thyself
Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness
Vanquish my staider senses. What 's the matter? lo
Why tender'st thou that paper to me, with
A look untender? If 't be summer news,

Act III. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

Smile to 't before ; if wintry, thou need'st

But keep that countenance still. My husband's

hand!
That drug-damn' d Italy hath out-craftied him,
And he 's at some hard point. Speak, man : thy

tongue
May take of some extremity, which to read
Would be even mortal to me.

Pis. Please you, read ;

And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing
The most disdained of fortune. 20

I mo. [Reads] ' Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played
the strumpet in my bed ; the testimonies whereof
lie bleeding in me. I speak not out of weak sur-
mises ; but from proof as strong as my grief,
and as certain as I expect my revenge. That
part thou, Pisanio, must act for me, if thy faith
be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let
thine own hands take away her life : I shall give
thee opportunity at Milford-Haven : she hath
my letter for the purpose : where, if thou fear to 30
strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou
art the pandar to her dishonour, and equally to
me disloyal.'

Pis. What shall I need to draw my sword? the paper
Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander ;
Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie
All comers of the world : kings, queens, and states.
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave 40

This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam ?

Imo. False to his bed ! What is it to be false ?
To lie in watch there, and to think on him ?

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. iv.

To weep 'twixt clock and clock? if sleep charge na-
ture,
To break it with a fearful dream of him,
And cry myself awake ? that 's false to bed, is it ?

Pis. Alas, good lady !

Into. I false ! Thy conscience witness : lachimo,
Thou didst accuse him of incontinency ;
Thou then look'dst like a villain ; now, methinks, 50
Thy favour 's good enough. Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him :
Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion ;
And, for I am richer than to hang by the walls,
I must be ripp'd : — to pieces with me ! — O,
Men's vows are women's traitors ! All good seeming
By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought
Put on for villany ; not bom where 't grows.
But worn a bait for ladies.

Pis. Good madam, hear me.

Imo. True honest men being heard, like false /Eneas, 60
Were in his time thought false ; and Sinon's weeping
Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity
From most true wretchedness : so thou Posthumus,
Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men ;
Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjured
From thy great fail. Come, fellow, be thou honest :
Do thou thy master's bidding. When thou see'st

him,
A little witness my obedience. Look !
I draw the sword mvself : take it, and hit
The innocent mansion of my love, my heart : 70

Fear not ; 'tis empty of all things but grief :
Thy master is not there, who was indeed
The riches of it. Do his bidding ; strike.
Thou mayst be valiant in a better cause,

Act III. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

But now thou seem'st a coward.

Pis. Hence, vile instrument !

Thou shalt not damn my hand.
Into. '■ Why, I must die;

And if I do not by thy hand, thou art
No servant of thy master's. Against self -slaughter
There is a prohibition so divine
That cravens my weak hand. Come, here 's my
heart ; — 80

Something 's afore 't. Soft, soft ! we '11 no de-
fence ; —
Obedient as the scabbard. What is here?
The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus,
All tum'd to heresy ? Away, away.
Corrupters of my faith ! you shall no more
Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools
Believe false teachers: though those that are be-
trayed
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.

And thou, Posthumus, thou that didst set up 90

My disobedience 'gainst the king my father,
And made me put into contempt the suits
Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find
It is no act of common passage, but
A strain of rareness : and I grieve myself
To think, when thou shalt be disedged by her
That now thou tirest on, how thy memory,
Will then be pang'd by me. Prithee, dispatch :
The lamb entreats the butcher : where 's thy knife ?
Thou art too slow to do thy master's bidding, 100
When I desire it too.
Pis. O gracious lady,

Smce I received command to do this business

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. iv.

I have not slept one wink.

Imo. Do 't, and to bed then.

Pis, I '11 wake mine eye-balls blind first.

Imo, Wherefore then

Didst undertake it ? Why hast thou abused
So many miles with a pretence ? this place ?
Mine action, and thine own ? our horses' labour ?
The time inviting thee ? the perturb'd court,
For my being absent? whereunto I never '

Purpose return. Why hast thou gone so far, no
To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand,
The elected deer before thee ?

Pis, But to win time

To lose so bad employment ; in the which
I have considered of a course. Good lady.
Hear me with patience.

Imo. Talk thy tongue weary ; speak :

I have heard I am a strumpet ; and mine ear.
Therein false struck, can take no greater wound,
Nor tent to bottom that. But speak

Pis. Then, madam,

I thought you would not back again.

Imo, Most like,

Bringing me here to kill me.

Pis, No so, neither : 120

But if I were as wise as honest, then
My purpose would prove well. It cannot be
But that my master is abused : some villain.
Ay, and singular in his art, hath done you both
This cursed injury.

Imo, Some Roman courtezan.

Pis, No, on my life.

Act III. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

I '11 give but notice you are dead, and send him
Some bloody sign of it ; for *tis commanded
I should do so : you shall be miss'd at court,
And that will well confirm it.

Imo. Why, good fellow, 130

What shall I do the while? where abide? how live?
Or in my life what comfort, when I am
Dead to my husband ?

Pis. If you '11 back to the court —

Imo, No court, no father ; nor no more ado
With that harsh, noble, simple nothing.
That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me
As fearful as a siege.

Pis, If not at court,

Then not in Britain must you bide.

Imo. Where then ?

Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night.
Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's vol-
ume 140
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't ;
In a great pool a swan's nest : prithee, think
There 's livers out of Britain.

Pis. I am most glad

You think of other place. The ambassador,
Lucius the Roman, comes to Milford-Haven
To-morrow : now, if you could wear a mind
Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise
That which, to appear itself, must not yet be
But by self-danger, you should tread a course
Pretty and full of view ; yea, haply, near 150

The residence of Posthumus ; so nigh at least
That though his actions were not visible, yet

»4

JYMBELINE Act III. Sc. iv.

Report should render him hourly to your ear
As truly as he moves.

mo, O, for such means,

Though peril to my modesty, not death on 't,
I would adventure !

^is. Well then, here 's the point :

You must forget to be a woman ; change
Command into obedience ; fear and niceness —
The handmaids of all women, or, more truly.
Woman it pretty self — into a waggish courage ; i6o
Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy and
As quarrelous as the weasel ; nay, you must
Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek,
Exposing it — ^but, O, the harder heart !
Alack, no remedy ! — to the greedy touch
Of common-kissing Titan, and forget
Your laboursome and dainty trims, wherein
You made great Juno angry.

I mo. Nay, be brief:

I see into thy end, and am almost
A man already.

Pis. First, make yourself but like one. 170

Fore-thinking this, I have already fit —
Tis in my cloak-bag — doublet, hat, hose, all
That answer to them : would you, in their serving
And with what imitation you can borrow
From youth of such a season, 'fore noble Lucius
Present yourself, desire his service, tell him
Wherein you 're happy, — which you 11 make him

know.
If that his head have ear in music, — doubtless
With joy he will embrace you ; for he 's honourable^

Act III. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

And, doubling that, most holy. Your means abroad,
You have me, rich ; and I will never fail i8i

Beginning nor supplyment.

Imo. Thou art all the comfort

The gods will diet me with. Prithee, away :
There 's more to be considered ; but we ll even
All that good time will give us : this attempt
I am soldier to, and will abide it with
A prince's courage. Away, I prithee.

Pis. Well, madam, we must take a short farewell,
Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of
Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress.
Here is a box ; I had it from the queen : 191

What 's in 't is precious ; if you are sick at sea.
Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this
Will drive away distemper. To some shade.
And fit you to your manhood : may the gods
Direct you to the best.

Imo. Amen : I thank thee. [Exeunt severally.

Scene V.

A room in Cymbeline's palace.
Enter Cymbeline, Queen, Cloten, Lucius, and Lords.

Cym. Thus far ; and so farewell.

Luc. Thanks, royal sir.

My emperor hath wrote, I must from hence ;
And am right sorry that I must report ye
My master's enemy.

Cym. Our subjects, sir,

WiJJ not endure his yoke ; and for ourself

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. v.

To show less sovereignty than they, must needs
Appear unkinglike.

Luc. So, sir : I desire of you

A conduct over-land to Milford-Haven.
Madam, all joy befal your grace, and you !

Cym. My lords, you are appointed for that office ; . lo
The due of honour in no point omit.
So farewell, noble Lucius.

Luc. Your hand, my lord.

Clo. Receive it friendly ; but from this time forth
I wear it as your enemy.

Luc. Sir, the event

Is yet to name the winner : fare you well.

Cym. Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords.
Till he have crossed the Severn. Happiness!

[Exeunt Lucius and Lords.

Queen. He goes hence frowning : but it honours us
That we have given him cause.

Clo. 'Tis all the better ;

Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it. 20

Cym. Lucius hath wrote already to the emperor
How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely
Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness :
The powers that he already hath in Gallia
Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves
His war for Britain.

Queen. 'Tis not sleepy business.

But must be look'd to speedily and strongly.

Cytn. Our expectation that it would be thus

Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen.
Where is our daughter? She hath not appeared 30
Before the Roman, nor to us hath tetvdw'4

Act III. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

The duty of the day : she looks us like
A thing more made of malice than of duty :
We have noted it. Call her before us, for
We have been too slight in sufferance.

[Exit an Attendant

Queen. Royal sir,

Since the exile of Posthumus, most retired
Hath her life been ; the cure whereof, my lord,
'Tis time must do. Beseech your majesty.
Forbear sharp speeches to her ; she 's a lady
So tender of rebukes that words are strokes, 40

And strokes death to her.

Re-enter Attendant.

Cym. Where is she, sir? How

Can her contempt be answered ?

Atten. Please you, sir.

Her chambers are all lock'd, and there 's no answer
That will be given to the loudest of noise we make.

Queen. My lord, when last I went to visit her,
She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close ;
Whereto constrained by her infirmity,
She should that duty leave unpaid to you,
Which daily she was bound to proffer : this
She wish'd me to make known; but our great

court 50

Made me to blame in memory.

Cym. Her doors lock'd?

Not seen of late ? Grant, heavens, that which I fear
Prove false ! [Exit.

Queen. Son, I say, follow the king.

C/o. That msLU of hers, Pisanio, her old servant,

Eft

YMBELINE Act III. Sc. v.

I have not seen these two days.

^ueen. Go, look after.

[Exit Clot en.
Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus!
He hath a drug of mine ; I pray his absence
Proceed by swallowing that ; for he believes
It is a thing most precious. But for her,
Where is she gone ? Haply, despair hath seized her ;
Or, wing'd with fervour of her love, she 's flown 6 1
To her desired Posthumus : gone she is
To death or to dishonour ; and my end
Can make good use of either : she being down,
I have the placing of the British crown.

Re-enter Cloten.

How now, my son !

C/o. 'Tis certain she is fleJ.

Go in and cheer the king : he rages ; none
Dare come about him.

Queen, [Aside] All the better : may

This night forestall him of the coming day ! [Exit.

Clo. I love and hate her : for she 's fair and royal, 70
And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite
Than lady, ladies, woman ; from every one
The best she hath, and she, of all compounded,
Outsells them all ; I love her therefore : but
Disdaining me and throwing favours on
The low Posthumus slanders so her judgement
That what 's else rare is choked ; and in that point
I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed.
To be revenged upon her. For when fools
Shall— '^

Act III. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Enter Pisanio.

Who is here ? What, are you packing, sirrah ?

Come hither : ah, you precious pandar ! Villain,

Where is thy lady ? In a word, or else

Thou art straightway with the fiends.
Pis, O, good my lord !

Clo. Where is thy lady ? or, by Jupiter, —

I will not ask again. Close villain,

I '11 have this secret from thy heart, or rip

Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus ?

From whose so many weights of baseness cannot

A dram of worth be drawn.
Pis, Alas, my lord.

How can she be with him? When was she
miss'd ? 90

He is in Rome.
Clo, Where is she, sir ? Come nearer ;

No farther halting : satisfy me home

What is become of her.
Pis, O, my all-worthy lord !
Clo. All-worthy villain !

Discover where thy mistress is at once,

At the next word : no more of ' worthy lord ! '

Speak, or thy silence on the instant is

Thy condemnation and thy death.
Pis, Then, sir,

This paper is the history of my knowledge

Touching her flight. [Presenting a letter.

Clo, Let 's see 't. I will pursue her 100

Even to Augustus' throne.
Pis. [Aside] Or this, or perish.

She 's far enough ; and what he learns by this

Maj prove his travel, not her danger.

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. v.

Clo. Hum !

Pis. [Aside] I '11 write to my lord she 's dead. O
Imogen,
Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again !

Clo. Sirrah, is this letter true ?

Pis. Sir, as I think.

Clo. It is Posthumus' hand ; I know 't. Sirrah, if
thou wouldst not be a villain, but do me true
service, undergo those employments wherein I no
should have cause to use thee with a serious
industry, that is, what villany soe*er I bid thee
do, to perform it directly and truly, I would
think thee an honest man : thou shouldst neither
want my means for thy relief, nor my voice for
thy preferment.

Pis. Well, my good lord.

Clo. Wilt thou serve me? for since patiently and
constantly thou hast stuck to the bare fortune
of that beggar Posthumus, thou canst not, in the 120
course of gratitude, but be a diligent follower of
mine. Wilt thou serve me ?

Pis. Sir, I will.

Clo. Give me thy hand ; here 's my purse. Hast any
of thy late master's garments in thy possession ?

Pis. I have, my lord, at my lodging the same suit he
wore when he took leave of my lady and mis-
tress.

Clo. The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit 130
hither : let it be thy first service ; go.

Pis. I shall, my lord. [Exit.

Clo. Meet thee at Milford-Haven ! — I forgot to ask
him one thing; I'll remember 't atiotv\ — ^n^w

Act III. Sc. V. CYMBELIN

there, thou villain Posthumus, will I kill thee.
I would these garments were come. She said
upon a time — the bitterness of it I now belch
from my heart — that she held the very garment
of Posthumus in more respect than my noble
and natural person, together with the adornment i.
of my qualities. With that suit upon my back,
will I ravish her : first kill him, and in her eyes ;
there shall she see my valour, which will then be
a torment to her contempt. He on the ground,
my speech of insultment ended on his dead body,
and when my lust hath dined — which, as I say,
to vex her I will execute in the clothes that she
so praised — to the court I '11 knock her back,
foot her home again. She hath despised me
rejoicingly, and I '11 be merry in my revenge. i

Re-enter Pisanio, with the clothes.

Be those the garments?

Pis. Ay, my noble lord.

Clo. How long is 't since she went to Milford-
Haven ?

Pis, She can scarce be there yet.

Clo. Bring this apparel to my chamber; that is the
second thing that I have commanded thee : the
third is, that thou wilt be a voluntary mute to
my design. Be but duteous, and true prefer-
ment shall tender itself to thee. My revenge is
now at Milford: would I had wings to follow I
it ! Come, and be true. [Ex

Pis. Thou bid'st me to my loss : for, true to thee
Were to prove false, which I will never be,
To him that is most true. To Milford go,

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. vi.

And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow,
You heavenly blessings, on her ! This fool's speed
Be cross'd with slowness ; labour be his meed !

[Exit.

Scene VI.

Wales: before the cave of Belarius,

Enter Imogen, in hoy's clothes.

Into. I see a man's life is a tedious one :

I have tired myself ; and for two nights together
Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick,
But that my resolution helps me. Milford,
When from the mountain-top Pisanio show'd thee,
Thou wast within a ken : O Jove ! I think
Foundations fly the wretched ; such, I mean,
Where they should be relieved. Two beggars told

me
I could not miss my way : will poor folks lie.
That have afflictions on them, knowing 'tis lo

A punishment or trial? Yes; no wonder.
When rich ones scarce tell true : to lapse in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need ; and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord !
Thou art one o' the false ones : now I think on thee.
My hunger 's gone ; but even before, I was
At point to sink for food. But what is this ?
Here is a path to 't : 'tis some savage hold :
I were best not call ; I dare not call ; yet famine.
Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant. 20
Plenty and peace breeds cowards ; hardness ever
Of hardiness is mother. Ho ! who 's here !

Act III. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

If any thing that 's civil, speak ; if savage,

Take or lend. Ho! No answer? then I '11 enter.

Best draw my sword ; and if mine enemy

But fear the sword like me, he '11 scarcely look on 't.

Such a foe, good heavens ! [Exit, to the cave.

Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.

Bel, You, Polydore, have proved best woodman and
Are master of the feast : Cadwal and I
Will play the cook and servant ; 'tis our match : 30
The sweat of industry would dry and die,
But for the end it works to. Come ; our stomachs
Will make what 's homely savoury : weariness
Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth
Finds the down pillow hard. Now, peace be here.
Poor house, that keep'st thyself !

GuL I am thoroughly weary.

Arv. I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite.

Gui There is cold meat i' the cave ; we '11 browse on
that,
Whilst what we have kill'd be cook'd.

Bel. [Looking into the cave] Stay; come not in.

But that it eats our victuals, I should think 41:

Here were a fairy.

Gui. What's the matter, sir?

BeL By Jupiter, an angel ! or, if not.

An earthly paragon ! Behold divineness
No elder than a boy !

Re-enter Imogen,

Into, Good masters, harm me not :

Before I enter'd here, I call'd ; and thought

CYMBELINE Act III. Sc. vi.

To have begg'd or bought what I have took : good
troth,

I have stoFn nought: nor would not, though I had
found

Gold strew'd i' the floor. Here 's money for my
meat:

I would have left it on the board so soon 51

As I had made my meal, and parted

With prayers for the provider.
Gui. Money, youth?

Arv. All gold and silver rather turn to dirt !

As 'tis no better reckon'd, but of those

Who worship dirty gods.
I mo. I see you 're angry :

Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should

Have died had I not made it.
Bel. Whither bound ?

Imo. To Milford-Haven.

Bel. What's your name? 60

Imo. Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who

Is bound for Italy ; he embark'd at Milford ;

To whom being going, almost spent with hunger,

I am fall'n in this offence.
Bel. Prithee, fair youth,

Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds

By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd !

'Tis almost night : you shall have better cheer

Ere you depart : and thanks to stay and eat it.

Boys, bid him welcome.
Gui. Were you a woman, youth,

I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty,

I bid for you as I 'Id buy.
^rv. I '11 make 't my comfort 71

He is a man ; I '11 love him as my brother :

Act III. Sc. vi. CYMBELINE

And such a welcome as I 'Id give to him

After long absence, such is yours : most welcome !

Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends.

Into. 'Mongst friends.

If brothers. [Aside] Would it had been so, that they
Had been my father's sons ! then had my prize
Been less, and so more equal ballasting
To thee, Posthumus.

Bel. He wrings at some distress.

Gut. Would I could free 't !

Arv. Or I ; whatever it be, 80

What pain it cost, what danger ! Gods !

Bel. Hark, boys.

[ Whispering.

Into. Great men.

That had a court no bigger than this cave.
That did attend themselves and had the virtue
Which their own conscience seal'd them — laying by
That nothing-gift of differing multitudes —
Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods !
I 'Id change my sex to be companion with them,
Since Leonatus' false.

Bel. It shall be so.

Boys, we '11 go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in :
Discourse is heavy, fasting ; when we have supp'd, 91
We '11 mannerly demand thee of thy story.
So far as thou wilt speak it.

Gui. Pray, draw near.

ArzK The night to the owl and mom to the lark less wel-
come.

Imo. Thanks, sir.

Arv. I pray, draw near. [Exeunt.

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. i.

Scene VII.

Rome. A public place.
Enter two Senators and Tribunes.

First Sen, This is the tenour of the emperor's writ :
That since the common men are now in action
'Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians,
And that the legions now in Gallia are
Full weak to undertake our wars against
The fairn-off Britons, that we do incite
The gentry to this business. He creates
Lucius proconsul ; and to you the tribunes,
For this immediate levy, he commends
His absolute commission. Long live Caesar ! lo

First Tri, Is Lucius general of the forces ?

Sec. Sen, Ay.

First Tri, Remaining now in Gallia ?

First Sen, With those legions

Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy
Must be supplyant : the words of your commission
Will tie you to the numbers and the time
Of their dispatch.

First Tri. We will discharge our duty. {Exeunt.

ACT FOURTH.
Scene I.

Wales: near the cave of Belarius.

Enter Cloten alone,

Clo. I am near to the place where they should meet,
if Pisanio have mapped it truly. How fit his
garments serve me! Why should his mvstt^%%,

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

who was made by him that made the tailor, not
be fit too? the rather — saving reverence of the
word — for 'tis said a woman's fitness comes by
fits. Therein I must play the workman. I dare
speak it to myself — for it ii not vain-glory for
a man and his glass to confer in his own cham-
ber — I mean, the lines of my body are as well lo
drawn as his; no less young, more strong, not
beneath him in fortunes, beyond him in the ad-
vantage of the time, above him in birth, alike
conversant in general services, and more re-
markable in single oppositions: yet this imper-
ceiverant thing loves him in my despite. What
mortality is ! Posthumus, thy head, which now
is growing upon thy shoulders, shall within this
hour be off; thy mistress enforced; thy gar-
ments cut to pieces before thy face : and all this 20
done, spurn her home to her father; who may
haply be a little angry for my so rough usage;
but my mother, having power of his testiness,
shall turn all into my commendations. My
horse is tied up safe : out, sword, and to a sore
purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand!
This is the very description of their meeting-
place ; and the fellow dares not deceive me. [Exit

Scene II.

Before the cave of Belarius.

Enter, from the cave, Belarius, Guiderius, Arvira^gus, and

Imogen.

Bel [To Imogen] You are not well: remain heif-e in the
cave ;
We 7i come to you after hunting. /

* \

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

Art'. [To Imogen] Brother, stay here:

Are we not brothers ?

I mo. So man and man should be ;

But clay and clay differs in dignity,
Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick.

Gui. Go you to hunting ; I '11 abide with him.

Into. So sick I am not, yet I am not well ;
But not so citizen a wanton as
To seem to die ere sick : so please you, leave me ;
Stick to your journal course : the breach of custom
Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me ii
Cannot amend me : society is no comfort
To one not sociable : I am not very sick.
Since I can reason of it. Pray you, trust me here :
I '11 rob none but myself ; and let me die,
Stealing so poorly.

Gut. I love thee ; I have spoke it :

How much the quantity, the weight as much,
As I do love my father.

Bel. What! how! how!

Arv. If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me

In my good brother's fault : I know not why 20

I love this youth ; and I have heard you say,
Love's reason 's without reason : the bier at door
And a demand who is 't shall die, I 'Id say
* My father, not this youth.'

Bel. [Aside] O noble strain!

worthiness of nature ! breed of greatness !
Cowards father cowards and base things sire base :
Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace.

1 'm not their father ; yet who this should be.
Doth miracle itself, loved before me. —

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

'Tis the ninth hour o' the mom.
Arv, Brother, farewell. 30

Imo. I wish ye sport.

Arv. You health. So please you, sir.

Imo. [Aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies
I have heard!
Our courtiers say all 's savage but at court :
Experience, O, thou disprovest report!
The imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish
Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish.
I am sick still, heart-sick. Pisanio,
I '11 now taste of thy drug. [Swallows some.

Gui. I could not stir him :

He said he was gentle, but unfortunate ;
Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest. 40

Arv. Thus did he answer me : yet said, hereafter
I might know more.

Bel. To the field, to the field !

We '11 leave you for this time : go in and rest.

Arv. We '11 not be long away.

Bel. Pray, be not sick,

For you must be our housewife.

Imo. Well or ill,

I am bound to you.

Bel. And shalt be ever.

[Exit Imogen, to the cave.
This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears he hath had
Good ancestors.

Arv. How angel-like he sings !

Gui. But his neat cookery ! he cut our roots
In characters ;
And sauced our broths, as Juno had been sick, 50

100

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

And he her dieter.

Arv, Nobly he yokes

A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh
Was that it was, for not being such a smile ;
The smile mocking the sigh, that it would fly
From so divine a temple, to commix
With winds that sailors rail at.

Gnu I do note

That grief and patience, rooted in him both,
Mingle their spurs together.

Arv. Grow, patience !

And let the stinking eldfer, grief, untwine
His perishing root with the increasing vine ! 60

Bel It is great morning. Come, away ! — Who 's there ?

Enter Cloten.

Clo, I cannot find those runagates ; that villain
Hath mock'd me : I am faint.

Bel, ' Those runagates ! '

Means he not us ? I partly know him ; 'tis
Cioten, the son o' the queen. I fear some ambush.
I saw him not these many years, and yet
I know 'tis he. We are held as outlaws : hence !

Gui, He is but one : you and my brother search
What companies are near : pray you, away ;
Let me alone with him.

[Exeunt Belarius and Arviragus.

C/o. Soft ! What are you 70

That flv me thus ? some villain mountaineers ?
I have heard of such. What slave art thou ?

Gut, A thing

More slavish did I ne'er than answering

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

A slave without a knock.
Clo. Thou art a robber,

A law-breaker, a villain : yield thee, thief.
Gui. To who? to thee? What art thou? Have not I

An arm as big as thine ? a heart as big ?

Thy words, I grant, are bigger ; for I wear not

My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art,

Why I should yield to thee.

Clo. Thou villain base, 80

Know'st me not by my clothes ?

GuL No, nor thy tailor, rascal,

Who is thy grandfather : • he made those clothes.
Which, as it seems, make thee.

Clo, Thou precious varlet,

My tailor made them not.
Gui. Hence then, and thank

The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool ;

I am loath to beat thee.

Clo. Thou injurious thief.

Hear but my name, and tremble.

Gui. What 's thy name ?

Clo. Cloten, thou villain.

Gui. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, 89

I cannot tremble at it : were it Toad, or Adder, Spider,
'Twould move me sooner.

Clo. To thy further fear.

Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know
I am son to the queen.

Gui. I am sorry for 't : not seeming

So worthy as thy birth.

Clo, Art not af eard ?

(7ui Those that I reverence, those I fear, the wise:

102

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

At fools I laugh, not fear them.
Clo. Die the death :

When I have slain thee with my proper hand,
I '11 follow those that even now fled hence.
And ctfi the gates of Lud's town set your heads :
Yield, rustic mountaineer. [Exeunt, fighting, loo

Re-enter Belarius and Arviragus.

Bel, No companies abroad?

Arv. None in the world : you did mistake him, sure.

Bel, I cannot tell : long is it since I saw him.

But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour
Which then he wore ; the snatches in his voice,
And burst of speaking, were as his : I am absolute
'Twas very Cloten.

Arv, In this place we left them :

I wish my brother make good time with him,
You say he is so fell.
Bel. Being scarce made up,

I mean, to man, he had not apprehension no

Of roaring terrors : for defect of judgement
Is oft the cause of fear. But see, thy brother.

Re-enter Guiderius, with Cloten' s head,

Gui. This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse ;
There was no money in 't : not Hercules
Could have knocked out his brains, for he had none :
Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne
My head as I do his.

Bel. What hast thou done?

Cm'. I am perfect what : cut off one Cloten's head.
Son to the queen, after his own report;

103

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

Who caird me traitor, mountaineer; and swore, 120
With his own single hand he *ld take us in,
Displace our heads where — thank the gods! — they

grow.
And set them on Lud's town.

Bel, We are all undone.

GuL Why, worthy father, what have we to lose,
But that he swore to take, our lives ? The law
Protects not us : then why should we be tender
To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us.
Play judge and executioner, all himself.
For we do fear the law ? What company
Discover you abroad ?

BeL No single soul 130

Can we set eye on ; but in all safe reason
He must have some attendants. Though his humour
Was nothing but mutation, ay, and that
From one bad thing to worse, not frenzy, not
Absolute madness could so far have raved.
To bring him here alone : although perhaps
It may be heard at court that such as we
Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time
May make some stronger head ; the which he hear-
ing—
As it is like him — might break out, and swear 140
He 'Id fetch us in ; yet is 't not probable
To come alone, either he so undertaking,
Or they so suffering : then on good ground we fear.
If we do fear this body hath a tail
More perilous than the head.

Arv, Let ordinance

Come as the gods foresay it : howsoe'er,

104

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

My brother hath done well.

Bel, I had no mind

To hunt this day : the boy Fidele's sickness
Did make my way long forth.

Gui. With his own sword,

Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en
His head from him : I 'II throw 't into the creek 151
Behind our rock, and let it to the sea,
And tell the fishes he 's the queen's son, Cloten :
That *s all I reck. {Exit,

Bel, I fear 'twill be revenged :

Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done 't ! though

valour
Becomes thee well enough.

Arv, Would I had done 't.

So the revenge alone pursued me ! Polydore,

I love thee brotherly, but envy much

Thou hast robb'd me of this deed: I would re-
venges, 159

That possible strength might meet, would seek us
through

And put us to our answer.

Bel Well, 'tis done :

We '11 hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger
Where there 's no profit. I prithee, to our rock ;
You and Fidele play the cooks : I '11 stay
Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him
To dinner presently.

Arv, Poor sick Fidele !

I '11 willingly to him : to gain his colour
I 'Id let a parish of such Clotens blood.
And praise myself for charity. [Exit.

Bel. O thou goddess,

105

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st 170

In these two princely boys ! They are as gentle

As zephyrs blowing below the violet,

Not wagging his sweet head ; and yet as rough.

Their royal blood enchafed, '».s the rudest wind

That by the top doth take the mountain pine

And make him stoop to the vale. 'Tis wonder

That an invisible instinct should frame them

To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught,

Civility not seen from other, valour

That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop 180

As if it had been sow'd. Yet still it 's strange

What Cloten's being here to us portends.

Or what his death will bring us.

Re-enter Guiderius.

Gui. Where 's my brother?

I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream,
In embassy to his mother : his body's hostage
For his return. [Solemn music.

Bel. My ingenious instrument!

Hark, Polydore, it sounds ! But what occasion
Hath Cadwal now to give it motion ? Hark !

Gui, Is he at home ?

BeL He went hence even now.

Gui. What does he mean? Since death of my dear'st
mother 190

It did not speak before. All solemn things
Should answer solemn accidents. The matter?
Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys
Is jollity for apes and grief for boys.
Is Cadwal mad ?

106

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

Re-enter Arviragus with Imogen, as dead, bearing her

in his arms.

Bel. LcK)k, here he comes, •

And brings the dire occasion in his arms
Of what we blame him for !

Arj. The bird is dead

That we have made so much on. I had rather
Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty,
• To have tum'd my leaping-time into a crutch, 200
Than have seen this.

Gut. O sweetest, fairest lily !

My brother wears thee not the one half so well
As when thou grew'st thyself.

Bel. O melancholy !

Who ever yet could sound thy bottom ? find
The ooze, to show what coast thy sluggish crare
Might easiliest harbour in ? Thou blessed thing !
Jove knows what man thou mightst have made ; but I,
Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy.
How found you him ?

Ari\ Stark, as you see :

Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber, 210
Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at ; his right cheek
Reposing on a cushion.

Gui. Where ?

^rv. O' the floor ;

His arms thus leagued : I thought he slept, and put
My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness
Answered my steps too loud.

Gwi. Why, he but sleeps :

If he be gone, he '11 make his grave a bed ;

107

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

With female fairies will his tomb be haunted,
And worms will not come to thee.

Arv, With fairest flowers,

Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,
I '11 sweeten thy sad grave : thou shalt not lack 220
The flower that 's like thy face, pale primrose, nor
The azured harebell, like thy veins ; no, nor
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,
Out-sweeten 'd not thy breath : the ruddock would
With charitable bill — O bill, sore shaming
Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
Without a monument ! — bring thee all this ;
Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,
To winter-ground thy corse.

Gtii Prithee, have done;

And do not play in wench-like words with that 230

Which is so serious. Let us bury him.

And not protract with admiration what

Is now due debt. To the grave !
Arv, Say, where shall 's lay himP"

GuL By good Euriphile, our mother.
Arv, Be 't so :

And let us, Polydore, though now our voices

Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground.

As once our mother ; use like note and words,

Save that * Euriphile ' must be ' Fidele.'

Qui. Cadwal,

I cannot sing : I '11 weep, and word it with thee : 24-^
For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse
Than priests and fanes that lie.

Arv. We '11 speak it then.

Bel. Great griefs, I see, medicine the less ; for Cloten

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. H.

Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys :

And though he came our enemy, remember

He was paid for that : though mean and mighty,

rotting
Together, have one dust, yet reverence,
That angel of the world, doth make distinction
Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely ;
And though you took his life as being our foe, 250
Yet bury him as a prince.

Gui, Pray you, fetch him hither,

Thersites' body is as good as Ajax',
When neither are alive.

Arv. If you '11 go fetch him.

We '11 say our song the whilst. Brother, begin.

[Exit Belarius.

Gui. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east ;
My father hath a reason for 't.

Arv. 'Tis true.

Gui. Come on then and remove him.

Arv. So. Begin.

Song.

Gui. Fear no more the heat o' the sun,

Nor the furious winter's rages ;
Thou thy worldly task hast done, 260

Home art gone and ta'en thy wages :
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

^rv. Fear no more the frown o' the great ;
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke ;
Care no more to clothe and eat ;
To thee the reed is as the oak :

109

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELINE

The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this and come to dust.

Guu Fear no more the lightning-flash, 270

Arv, Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone ;

Gui. Fear not slander, censure rash ;
Arv. Thou hast finished joy and moan :

Both, All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee and come to dust.

Gui. No exorciser harm thee !
Arv. Nor no witchcraft charm thee !
Gui. Ghost unlaid forbear thee !
Arv. Nothing ill come near thee !
Both. Quiet consummation have ; 280

And renowned be thy grave !

Re-enter Belarius with the body of Cloten.

Gui. We have done our obsequies : come lay him down.

Bel. Here 's a few flowers, but 'bout midnight more :
The herbs that have on them cold dew o' the night
Are strewings fittest for graves. Upon their faces.
You were as flowers, now withered : even so
These herblets shall, which we upon you strow.
Come on, away : apart upon our knees.
The ground that gave them first has them again :
Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain. 290
[Exeunt Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus.

Into. {Awaking^ Yes, sir, to Milford-Haven ; which is
the way ? —
I thank you. — By yond bush? — Pray, how far'

thither?
'Ods pittikins ! can it be six mile yet ? —
I have gone all night : faith, I '11 lie down and sleep ^

110

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. ii.

But, soft ! no bedfellow ! O gods and goddesses !

[Seeing the body of Cloten.
These flowers are like the pleasures of the world ;
This bloody man, the care on 't. I hope I dream ;
For so I thought I was a cave-keeper,
And cook to honest creatures : but 'tis not so ;
Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing, 300
Which the brain makes of fumes : our very eyes
Are sometimes like our judgements, blind. Good

faith,
I tremble still with fear : but if there be
Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity
As a wren's eye, f ear'd gods, a part of it !
The dream 's here still : even when I wake, it is
Without me, as within me : not imagined, felt.
A headless man ! The garments of Posthumus !
Tknow the shape of 's leg : this is his hand ;
His foot Mercurial; his Martial thigh; 310

The brawns of Hercules : but his jovial face —
Murder in heaven ? — How ! — 'Tis gone. Pisanio,
All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks,
And mine to boot, be darted on thee ! Thou,
Conspired with that irregulous devil. Clot en,
Hast here cut off my lord. To write and read
Be henceforth treacherous ! Damn'd Pisanio
Hath with his forged letters — damn'd Pisanio—
From this most bravest vessel of the world
Struck the main-top ! O Posthumus ! alas, 320

Where is thy head ? where *s that ? Ay me !

where 's that ?
Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart
And left this head on. How should this be ? Pisanio ?

Ill

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELI^

'Tis he and Cloten : malice and lucre in them
Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnai
The drug he gave me, which he said was precious
And cordial to me, have I not found it
Murderous to the senses ? That confirms it home :
This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten's : O !
Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, 3
That we the horrider may seem to those
Which chance to find us : O, my lord, my lord !

[Falls on the hoc

Enter Lucius, a Captain and other OMcers, and a

Soothsayer.

Cap. To them the legions garrisoned in Gallia

After your will have crossed the sea, attending
You here at Milford-Haven with your ships :
They are in readiness.

Luc. But what from Rome?

Cap. The senate hath stirr'd up the confiners
And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits
That promise noble service : and they come
Under the conduct of bold lachimo, 3

Svenna's brother.

Luc. When expect you them ?

Cap. With the next benefit o' the wind.

Luc. This forwardne

Makes our hopes fair. Command our present nu

bers
Be muster'd ; bid the captains look to 't. Now, sir
What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpos

Sooth. Last night the very gods show'd me a vision —
I fast and pray'd for their intelligence — ^thus :
I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd
From the spongy south to this part of the west, 3

112

CYM5ELINE ActlV. Sc. ii.

There vanished in the sunbeams : which portends —
Unless my sins abuse my divination —
Success to the Roman host.

Luc, Dream often so, •

And never false. Soft, ho ! what trunk is here
Without his top ? The ruin speaks that sometime
It was a worthy building. How ! a page !
Or dead, or sleeping on him ? But dead rather ;
For nature doth abhor to make his bed
With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead.
Let 's see the boy's face.

Cap, He 's alive, my lord.

Luc. He '11 then instruct us of this body. Young one, 360
Inform us of thy fortunes, for it seems
They crave to be demanded. Who is this
Thou makest thy bloody pillow ? Or who was he
That, otherwise than noble nature did,
Hath altered that good picture ? What 's thy interest
In this sad wreck ? How came it ? Who is it ?
What art thou ?

^wo. I am nothing : or if not,

Nothing to be were better. This was my master,

A very valiant Briton and a good.

That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas ! 370

There is no more such masters : I may wander

From east to Occident, cry out for service.

Try many, all good, serve truly, never

Find such another master.

Luc. 'Lack, good youth !

Thou movest no less with thy complaining than
Thy master in bleeding : say his name, good friend.

^»to. Richard du Champ. [Aside] If I do lie, and do

113

Act IV. Sc. ii. CYMBELU

No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope
They '11 pardon it. Say you, sir ?

Luc. Thy name ?

Imo. Fidele, sir.

Luc, Thou dost approve thyself the very same :

Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name.
Wilt take thy chance with me ? I will not say
Thou shalt be so well mastered, but be sure,
No less beloved. The Roman emperor's letters
Sent by a consul to me should not sooner
Than thine own wo.rth prefer thee : go with me.

Imo, I '11 follow, sir. But first, an 't please the gods,
I '11 hide my master from the flies, as deep
As these poor pickaxes can dig : and when
With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd

grave
And on it said a century of prayers.
Such as I can, twice o'er, I '11 weep and sigh.
And leaving so his service, follow you,
So please you entertain me.

Luc. Ay, good youth ;

And rather father thee than master thee.
My friends.

The boy hath taught us manly duties : let us
Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can.
And make him with our pikes and partisans
A grave : come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd
By thee to us, and he shall be interr'd
As soldiers can. Be cheerful ; wipe thine eyes :
Some falls are means the happier to arise. [Exa

114

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. iiL

Scene III.

A room in Cymbeline's palace.

Enter Cymbeline, Lords, Pisanio, and Attendants.

Cym. Again ; and bring me word how 'tis with her.

[Exit an Attendant,
A fever with the absence of her son ;
A madness, of which her life 's in danger. Heavens,
How deeply you at once do touch me ! Imogen,
The great part of my comfort, gone ; my queen
Upon a desperate bed, and in a time
When fearful wars point at me ; her son gone,
So needful for this present : it strikes me, past
The hope of comfort. But for. thee, fellow.
Who needs must know of her departure and lo

Dost seem so ignorant, we *ll enforce it from thee
By a sharp torture.

Pis, Sir, my life is yours,

I humbly set it at your will : but, for my mistress,
I nothing know where she remains, why gone.
Nor when she purposes return. Beseech your high-
ness,
Hold me your loyal servant.

First Lord, Good my liege.

The day that she was missing he was here :
I dare be bound he 's true and shall perform
All parts of his subjection loyally. For Clot en.
There wants no diligence in seeking him, 20

And will, no doubt, be found.

Cym. The time is troublesome.

[To Pisanio] We'll slip you for a season; but our
jealousy

115

Act IV. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Does yet depend.

First Lord. So please your majesty,

The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn,
Are landed on your coast, with a supply
Of Roman gentlemen by the senate sent.

Cym, Now for the counsel of my son and queen !
I am amazed with matter.

First Lord, Gk)od my liege.

Your preparation can affront no less
Than what you hear of : come more, for more you *re
ready : 30

The want is but to put those powers in motion
That long to move.

Cym. I thank you. Let 's withdraw ;

And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not
What can from Italy annoy us, but
W^e grieve at chances here. Away!

[Exeunt all but Pisanio,

Pis, I heard no letter from my master since

I wrote him Imogen was slain : 'tis strange :
Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise
To yield me often tidings ; neither know I
What is betid to Cloten, but remain 40

Perplexed in all. The heavens still must work.
Wherein I am false I am honest ; not true, to be true.
These present wars shall find I love my country,
Even to the note o' the king, or I '11 fall in them.
All other doubts, by time let them be cleared :
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd.

[Exit.

116

CYMBELINE Act IV. Sc. iv.

Scene IV.

Wales. Before the cave of Belarius.
Enter Belarius, Guiderius, and Arviragus,

Gnu The noise is round about us.

Bel. Let us from it.

Arv. What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it
From action and adventure?

Gui. Nay, what hope

Have we in hiding us ? This way, the Romans
Must or for Britons slay us or receive us
For barbarous and unnatural revolts
During their use, and slay us after.
BeL Sons,

We *11 higher to the mountains ; there secure us.
To the king's party there 's no going : newness
Of Cloten's death — we being not known, not muster'd
Among the bands — may drive us to a render 1 1

Where we have lived, and so extort from 's that
Which we have done, whose answer would be death
Drawn on with torture.
^^i. This is, sir, a doubt

In such a time nothing becoming you.
Nor satisfying us.

M\ It is not likely

That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,
Behold their quartered fires, have both their eyes
And ears so cloy'd importantly as now,
That they will waste their time upon our note, 2Q
To know from whence we are.

^W. O, I am known

Of many in the army : many years,

117

Act IV. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore

him
From my remembrance. And besides, the king
Hath not deserved my service nor your loves ;
Who find in my exile the want of breeding,
The certainty of this hard life ; aye hopeless
To have the courtesy your cradle promised.
But to be still hot summer's tanlings and
The shrinking slaves of winter.

Gui. Than be so 30

Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to the army :
I and my brother are not known ; yourself
So out of thought, and thereto so overgrown.
Cannot be question'd.

Arv. By this sun that shines,

I '11 thither : what thing is it that I never
Did see man die ! scarce ever look'd on blood,
But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison !
Never bestrid a horse, save one that had
A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel
Nor iron on his heel ! I am ashamed 4CI

To look upon the holy sun, to have
The benefit of his blest beams, remaining
So long a poor unknown.

Gui. By heavens, I '11 go :

If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
I '11 take the better care, but if you will not,
The hazard therefore due fall on me by
The hands of Romans !

Arv, So say I : amen.

Bel, No reason I, since of your lives you set
So slight a valuation, should reserve
My crack'd one to more care. Have with you. boys .

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. i.

If in your country wars you chance to die, 51

That is my bed too, lads, and there I '11 lie :

Lead, lead. [Aside] The time seems long : iheir blood

thinks scorn,
Till it fly out and show them princes bom. [Exeunt,

ACT FIFTH.
Scene I.

Britain, The Roman camp.

Enter Posthumus, with a bloody handkerchief.

Post. Yea, bloody cloth, I '11 keep thee ; for I wish'd
Thou shouldst be coloured thus. You married ones,
If each of you should take this course, how many
Must murder wives much better than themselves
For wrying but a little ! O Pisanio !
Every good servant does not all commands :
No bond but to do just ones. Gods ! if you
Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had lived to put on this : so had you saved
The noble Imogen to repent, and struck 10

Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But, alack.
You snatch some hence for little faults ; that *s love,
To have them fall no more : you some permit
To second ills with ills, each elder worse.
And make them dread it, to the doer's thrift.
But Imogen is your own : do your best wills.
And make me blest to obey ! I am brought hither
Among the Italian gentry, and to fight
Against my lady's kingdom : 'tis enough
That, Britain, I have kill'd thy mistress*, ^eajc.^\ 1^

119

Act V. Sc. ii. GYMBELINE

I '11 give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens.

Hear patiently my purpose : I '11 disrobe me

Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself

As does a Briton peasant : so I '11 fight

Against the part I come with ; so I '11 die

For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life

Is, every breath, a death : and thus> unknown,

Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril

Myself I '11 dedicate. Let me make men know

More valour in me than my habits show. 30

Gods, put the strength o* the Leonati in me I

To shame the guise o' the world, I will beg^n

The fashion, less without and more within. [Exit.

Scene II.

Field of battle between the British and Roman camps.

Enter, from one side, Lucius, lachimo, Imogen, and the
Roman army; from the other side, the British army ;
Leonatiis Posthumus following, like a poor soldier.
They march over and go out. Then enter again, in
skirmish, lachimo and Posthumus: he vanquisheth
and disarmeth lachimo, and then leaves him.

lach. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom
Takes off my manhood : I have belied a lady,
The princess of this country, and the air on 't
Revengingly enfeebles me ; or could this carl,
A very drudge of nature's, have subdued me
In my profession ? Knighthoods and honours, borne
As I wear mine, are titles but of scorn.
JI that thy gentry, Britain, isfo before

120

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iii.

This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds

Is that we scarce are men and you are gods. [Exit, lo

The battle continues; the Britons Hy; Cymheline is taken;
then enter, to his rescue, Belarius, Guiderius, and

Arviragus.

Bel. Stand, stand ! We have the advantage of the ground ;
The lane is guarded : nothing routs us but
The villany of our fears.

^ ' Y Stand, stand, and fight !

Re-enter Posthumus, and seconds the Britons: they
rescue Cymbeline and exeunt. Then re-enter Lucius,
lachimo, and Imogen,

Luc. Away, boy, from the troops, and save thyself ;

For friends kill friends, and the disorder 's such

As war were hoodwinked.
lack. Tis their fresh supplies.

Luc. It is a day tum'd strangely : or betimes

Let 's reinforce, or fly. [Exeunt.

Scene III.

Another part of the Held.
Enter Posthumus and a British Lord.

Lord, Camest thou from where they made the stand ?

Post. I did:

Though you, it seems, come from the fliers.

lord, I did.

Post, No blame be to you, sir ; for all was lost.
But that the heavens fought : the king himself
Of his wings destitute, the army broken,
And but the backs of Britons seen, all ft^vcv^

121

Act V. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Through a strait lane ; the enemy full-hearted,
Lolling the tongue with slaughtering, having work
More plentiful than tools to do 't, struck down
Some mortally, some slightly touched, some falling lo
Merely through fear ; that the strait pass was damm'd
With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living
To die with lengthened shame.

Lord. Where was this lane?

Post. Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf ;
Which gave advantage to an ancient soldier.
An honest one, I warrant ; who deserved
So long a breeding as his white beard came to.
In doing this for 's country. Athwart the lane
He, with two striplings — lads more like to run
The country base than to commit such slaughter ; 20
With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer
Than those for preservation cased, or shame —
Made good the passage ; cried to those that fled,
' Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men :
To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards. Stand ;
Or we are Romans, and will give you that
Like beasts which you shun beastly, and may save
But to look back in frown : stand, stand ! ' These

three.
Three thousand confident, in act as many, —
For three performers are the file when all 3C^

The rest do nothing, — with this word ' Stand, stand,"^
Accommodated by the place, more charming
With their own nobleness, which could have tum'd
A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks.
Part shame, part spirit renewed; that some, turn'
coward

122

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iii.

But by example, — O, a sin in war,

Damn'd in the first beginners ! — *gan to look

The way that they did, and to grin like lions

Upon the pikes o' the hunters. Then began

A stop i' the chaser, a retire ; anon 40

A rout, confusion thick : forthwith they fly

Chickens, the way which they stoop'd"eagles ; slaves.

The strides they victors made: and now our

cowards.
Like fragments in hard voyages, became
The life o* the need : having found the back-door

open
Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound !
Some slain before, some dying, some their friends
O*er-borne i' the former wave : ten chased by one
Are now each one the slaughter-man of twenty :
Those that would die or ere resist are grown 50

The mortal bugs o' the field.

Lord. This was strange chance :

A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys.

Post. Nay, do not wonder at it : you are made
Rather to wonder at the things you hear
Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon 't,
And vent it for a mockery ? Here is one :
' Two boys, an old man twice a boy, a lane.
Preserved the Britons, was the Romans* bane.

Lord. Nay, be not angry, sir.

Post. 'Lack, to what end ?

Who dares not stand his foe, I '11 be his friend ; 60

For if he '11 do as he is made to do,

I know he '11 quickly fly my friendship too.

You have put me into rhyme.

123

Act V. Sc. iii. CYMBELINE

Lord, Farewell ; you 're angry. [Exit.

Post. Still going ? This is a lord ! O noble misery !
To be i' the field, and ask * what news ? ' of me !
To-day how many would have given their honours
To have saved their carcasses ! took heel to do 't,
And yet died too ! I, in mine own woe charm'd,
Could not find death where I did hear him groan,
Nor feel him where he struck. Being an ugly

monster, 70

'Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds.
Sweet words ; or hath moe ministers than we
That draw his knives i' the war. Well, I will find

him:
For being now a favourer to the Briton,
No more a Briton, I have resumed again
The part I came in : fight I will no more,
But yield me to the veriest hind that shall
Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is
Here made by the Roman ; great the answer be
Britons must take. For me, my ransom 's death : 80
On either side I come to spend my breath.
Which neither here I '11 keep nor bear again.
But end it by some means for Imogen.

Enter tzvo British Captains and Soldiers.

First Cap. Great Jupiter be praised ! Lucius is taken :
Tis thought the old man and his sons were angels.

Sec. Cap. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit,
That gave the affront with them.

First Cap. So 'tis reported :

But none of 'em can be found. Stand ! who 's tb

^^•r/. A Roman ;

124

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iv.

Who had not now been drooping here if seconds 90
Had answer'd him.
Sec. Cap. Lay hands on him ; a dog !

A leg of Rome shall not return to tell
What crows have peck'd them here. He brags his

service
As if he were of note : bring him to the king.

Enter Cymbeline, Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus, Pisanio,
and Roman Captives. The Captains present Pos-
thumus to Cymbeline, who delivers him over to a
Gaoler: then exeunt omnes.

Scene IV.

A British prison.

Enter Posthumiis and two Gaolers.

PirstGaol. You shall not now be stoFn, you have locks
upon you :
So graze as you find pasture.
^^c. Gaol. Ay, or a stomach.

[Exeunt Gaolers,
^ost Most welcome, bondage ! for thou art a way,
I think, to liberty : yet am I better
Than one that 's sick o' the gout ; since he had rather
Groan so in perpetuity than be cured
By the sure physician, death, who is the key
To unbar these locks. My conscience, thou art

fettered
More than my shanks and wrists: you good gods,

give me
The penitent instrument to pick that bolt, 10

Then, free for everi Is 't enough 1 arcv ^ott^"1

125

Act V. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

So children temporal fathers do appease ;

Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent ?

I cannot do it better than in gyves,

Desired more than constrained : to satisfy,

If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take

No stricter render of me than my all.

I know you are more clement than vile men.

Who of their broken debtors take a third,

A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again 20

On their abatement : that 's not my desire :

For Imogen's dear life take mine ; and though

'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life ; you coin'd it :

'Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp ;

Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake :

You rather mine, being yours : and so, great powers,

If you will take this audit, take this life,

And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen !

I '11 speak to thee in silence. [Sleeps^

Solemn music. Enter, as in an apparition, Sicilius Le-
onatus, father to Posthumus, an old man, attired likm
a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient matrotm
his wife and mother to Posthumtis, with music befor~
them: then, after other music, follow the two youn-^
Leonati, brothers to Posthumus, with wounds as th^
died in the wars. They circle Posthumus round as Ftm
lies sleeping.

Sici. No more, thou thunder-master, show ^

Thy spite on mortal flies:
With Mars fall out, with Juno chide,
That thy adulteries
Rates and reverv^es.

126

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iv.

Hath my poor boy done aught but well,

Whose face I never saw ?
I died whilst in the womb he stay'd

Attending nature's law :
Whose father then — as men report

Thou orphans' father art — 40

Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him

From this earth-vexing smart.

^oth. Lucina lent not me her aid.
But took me in my throes ;
That from me was Posthumus ript,
Came crying 'mongst his foes,
A thing of pity !

^^^^' Great nature, like his ancestry.
Moulded the stuff so fair.
That he deserved the praise o- the world, 50

As great Sicilius' heir.

Pirst Bro. When once he was mature for man,
In Britain where was he
That could stand up his parallel.

Or fruitful object be
In eye of Imogen, that best
Could deem his dignity?

^^oth. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd
To be exiled, and thrown
From Leonati seat, and cast 60

From her his dearest one.
Sweet Imogen ?

^ici Why did you suffer lachimo,
Slight thing of Italy,

127

Act V. Sc. iv. CYMBEL!

To taint his nobler heart and brain

With needless jealousy ;
And to become the geek and scorn

O' the other's villany ?

Sec, Bro, For this, from stiller seats we came,

Our parents and us twain.
That striking in our country's cause

Fell bravely and were slain,
Our fealty and Tenantius' right

With honour to maintain.

First Bro. Like hardiment Posthumus hath
To Cymbeline performed:
Then, Jupiter, thou king of gods.

Why hast thou thus adjoum'd
The graces for his merits due ;
Being all to dolours turn'd ?

Sici, Thy crystal window ope ; look out ;
No longer exercise
Upon a valiant race thy harsh
And potent injuries.

Moth. Since, Jupiter, our son is good.
Take off his miseries.

Sici. Peep through thy marble mansion ; help ;
Or we poor ghosts will cry
To the shining synod of the rest
Against thy deity.

Both Bro. Help, Jupiter ; or we appeal,
And from thy justice fly.

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iv.

Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon
an eagle: he throws a thunderbolt. The Ghosts fall
on their knees.

Jup, No more, you petty spirits of region low,

Offend our hearing ; hush ! How dare you ghosts
Accuse the thunderer, whose bolt, you know.

Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts ?
Poor shadows of Elysium, hence, and rest

Upon your never-withering banks of flowers :
Be not with mortal accidents opprest ;

No care of yours it is ; you know 'tis ours. loo

Whom best I love I cross ; to make my gift,

The more delayed, delighted. Be content ;
Your low-laid son our godhead will uplift :

His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent.
Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in

Our temple was he married. Rise, and fade.
He shall be lord of lady Imogen,

And happier much by his affliction made.
This tablet lay upon his breast, wherein

Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine : no

And so away : no farther with your din

Express impatience, lest you stir up mine.

Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. [Ascends.

^ici. He came in thunder ; his celestial breath
Was sulphurous to smell : the holy eagle
Stoop'd, as to foot us : his ascension is
More sweet than our blest fields : his royal bird
Prunes the immortal wing and cloys his beak.
As when his god is pleased.

^^^« Thanks, Jupiter!

129

Act V. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

SicL The marble pavement closes, he is entered 120

His radiant roof. Away ! and, to be blest,
Let us with care perform his great behest.

[The Ghosts vanish.

Post. [Waking] Sleep, thou hast been a grandsire, and

begot
A father to me ; and thou hast created
A mother and two brothers : but, O scorn !
Gone ! they went hence so soon as they were bom :
And so I am awake. Poor wretches that depend
On greatness' favour dream as I have done ;
Wake, and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve :
Many dream not to find, neither deserve, 130

And yet are steep'd in favours ; so am I,
That have this golden chance, and know not why.
What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare

one!
Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment
Nobler than that it covers : let thv effects
So follow, to be most unlike our courtiers,
As good as promise.

[Reads] ' When as a lion's whelp shall, to
himself unknown, without seeking find, and be
embraced by a piece of tender air, and when 140
from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches,
which, being dead many years, shall after revive,
be jointed to the old stock and freshly grow, then
shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be
fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'

'Tis still a dream ; or else such stuflF as madmen
Tongue, and brain not : either both, or nothing:
Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such

130

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. iv.

As sense cannot untie. Be what it is,

The action of my Hfe is like it, which 150

I '11 keep, if but for sympathy.

Re-enter Gaolers,

First Gaol, Come, sir, are you ready for death ?

Post, Over-roasted rather ; ready long ago.

First Gaol, Hanging is the word, sir : if you be ready
for that, you are well cooked.

Fost, So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators,
the dish pays the shot.

First Gaol. A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the
comfort is, you shall be called to no more pay-
ments, fear no more tavern-bills; which are 160
often the sadness of parting, as the procuring
of mirth: vou come in faint for want of meat,
depart reeling with too much drink; sorry that
you have paid too much, and sorry that you are
paid too much ; purse and brain both empty, the
brain the heavier for being too light, the purse
too light, being drawn of heaviness : of this con-
tradiction you shall now be quit. O, the charity
of a penny cord ! it sums up thousands in a trice :
you have no true debitor and creditor but it ; of 17a
what 's past, is, and to come, the discharge : your
neck, sir, is pen, book and counters; so the
acquittance follows.

^ost. I am merrier to die than thou art to live.

^irst Gaol. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the
toothache: but a man that were to sleep your
sleep, and a hangman to help him to bed, I
think he would change places with his of^c^x \

131

Act V. Sc. iv. CYMBELINE

for, look you, sir, you know not which way you
shall go. 180

Post. Yes, indeed do I, fellow.

First Gaol. Your death has eyes in 's head then ; I
have not seen him so pictured : you must either
be directed by some that take upon them to
know, or to take upon yourself that which I am
sure you do not know, or jump the after-inquiry
on your own peril : and how you shall speed in
your journey's end, I think you'll never return
to tell one.

Post, I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to
direct them the way I am going, but such as 190
wink and will not use them.

First GaoL What an infinite mock is this, that a man
should have the best use of eyes to see the way
of blindness ! I am sure hanging 's the way of
winking.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Knock off his manacles ; bring your prisoner
to the king.

Post. Thou bringest good news, I am called to be
made free.

First Gaol. I '11 be hanged then. 200

Post. Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no
bolts for the dead. [Exeunt all but First Gaoler.

First Gaol. Unless a man would marry a gallows and
beget young gibbets, I never saw one so prone.
Yet, on my conscience, there are verier knaves
desire to live, for all he be a Roman : and there
be some of them too, that die against their wills ;
so should I, if I were one. I would we were
all of one mind, and one mind good; O, there

132

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

were desolation of gaolers and gallowses! I 210
speak against my present profit, but my wish
Jiath a preferment in 't. [ExiK

Scene V.

Cymbeline's tent

Enter Cymheline, Belarius, Guiderius, Arviragus,
Pisanio, Lords, Officers, and Attendants,

Cym. Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made
Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart,
That the poor soldier, that so richly fought.
Whose rags shamed gilded arms, whose naked breast
Stepp'd before targes of proof, cannot be found :
He shall be happy that can find him, if
Our grace can make him so.

BeL I never saw

Such noble fury in so poor a thing ;
Such precious deeds in one that promised nought
But beggary and poor looks.

Cynu No tidings of him ? 10

Pis. He hath been searched among the dead and living.
But no trace of him.

Cym, To my grief, I am

The heir of his reward ; [To Belarius, Guiderius, and

Arviragus] which I will add
To you, the liver, heart, and brain of Britain,
By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time
To ask of whence you are : report it.

Bel Sir,

In Cambria are we bom, and gentlemen
Further to boast were neither true nor modest,

133

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Unless I add we are honest.

Cym. Bow your knees.

Arise my knights o' the battle : I create you 20

Companions to our person, and will fit you
With dignities becoming your estates.

Enter Cornelius and Ladies.

There 's business in these faces. Why so sadly
Greet you our victory? you look like Romans,
And not o' the court of Britain.

Cor. Hail, great king!

To sour your happiness, I must report
The queen is dead.

Cym. Who worse than a physician

V^'ould this report become ? But I consider.
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death
Will seize the doctor too ? How ended she ? 30

Cor. With horror, madly dying, like her life ;
Which, being cruel to the world, concluded
Most cruel to herself. What she confessed
I will report, so please you : these her women
Can trip me if I err ; who with wet cheeks
Were present when she finished.

Cym. Prithee, say.

Cor. First, she confessed she never loved you, only
Affected greatness got by you, not you :
Married your royalty, was wife to your place,
Abhorr'd your person.

Cym. She alone knew this ;

And, but she spoke in dying, I would not
Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed.

Cor. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

With such integrity, she did confess
Was as a scorpion to her sight ; whose Hf e,
But that her flight prevented it, she had
Ta'en off by poison.

Cym. O most delicate fiend !

Who is 't can read a woman ? Is there more ?

Cor. More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had

For you a mortal mineral ; which, being took, 50
Should by the minute feed on life and lingering
By inches waste you : in which time she purposed.
By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to
Overcome you with her show, and in time.
When she had fitted you with her craft, to work
Her son into the adoption of the crown :
But, failing of her end by his strange absence.
Grew shameless-desperate; opened, in despite
Of heaven and men, her purposes ; repented
The evils she hatched were not effected ; so 60

Despairing died.

Q'm. Heard you all this, her women ?

bodies. We did, so please your highness.

^ym. Mine eyes

Were not in fault, for she was beautiful.
Mine ears that heard her flattery, nor my heart
That thought her like her seeming; it had been

vicious
To have mistrusted her : yet, O my daughter
That it was folly in me, thou mayst say.
And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all !

Enter Lucius, lachimo, the Soothsayer, and other Roman
Prisoners, guarded; Posthumus behind, and Imogen.

Thou comest not, Caius, now for tribute ; that

135

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

The Britons have razed out, though with the loss 70
Of many a bold one ; whose kinsmen have made suit
That their good souls may be appeased with slaughter
Of you their captives, which ourself have granted :
So think of your estate.

Luc. Consider, sir, the chance of war : the day
Was yours by accident ; had it gone with us.
We should not, when the blood was cool, have

threatened
Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods
Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives
May be calFd ransom, let it come : suificeth 80

A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer :
Augustus lives to think on 't : and so much
For my peculiar care. This one thing only
I will entreat ; my boy, a Briton born,
Let him be ransom'd : never master had
A page so kind, so duteous, diligent,
So tender over his occasions, true,
So feat, so nurse-like : let his virtue join
With my request, which I '11 make bold your highness
Cannot deny ; he hath done no Briton harm, 90

Though he have served a Roman : save him, sir,
And spare no blood beside.

Cym, I have surely seen him :

His favour is familiar to me. Boy,
Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace.
And art mine own. I know not why, nor wherefore.
To say, live, boy : ne'er thank thy master ; live :
And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt,
Fitting my bounty and thy state, I '11 give it ;
Yea^ though thou do demand a priscmer,

136

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

The noblest ta'en.
I mo, I humbly thank your highness. loo

Luc. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad,

And yet I know thou wilt.

Imo. No, no: alack,

There 's other work in hand : I see a thing
Bitter to me as death : your life, good master,
Must shuffle for itself.

Luc. The boy disdains me.

He leaves me, scorns me : briefly die their joys
That place them on the truth of girls and boys.
Why stands he so perplex'd ?

Cym. What wouldst thou, boy?

I love thee more and more : think more and more
What 's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on ?
speak, no

Wilt have him live ? Is he thy kin ? thy friend ?

J^o, He is a Roman ; no more kin to me

Than I to your highness; who, being bom your

vassal.
Am something nearer.

Cyw. Wherefore eyest him so?

^^0. I '11 tell vou, sir, in private, if you please
To give me hearing.

Cym. Ay, with all my heart.

And lend my best attention. What 's thy name ?

^mo. Fidele, sir.

^ym. Thou 'rt my good youth, my page ;

I '11 be thy master : walk with me ; speak freely.

[Cymbeline and Imogen converse apart.

^el Is not this boy revived from death ?

^rv. One sand another iio

137

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad

Who died, and was Fidele. What think you ?
Gui The same dead thing alive.
Bel, Peace, peace ! see further ; he eyes us not ; forbear ;

Creatures may be alike : were 't he, I am sure

He would have spoke to us.
Gui, But we saw him dead.

Bel. Be silent ; let 's see further.
Pis, [Aside] It is my mistress :

Since she is living, let the time run on.

To good or bad.

[Cymbeline and Imogen come forward.
Gym, Come, stand thou by our side;

Make thy demand aloud. [To lachimo] Sir, step
you forth; 130

Give answer to this boy, and do it freely ;

Or, by our greatness and the grace of it,

Which is our honour, bitter torture shall

Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to
him.
Imo, My boon is that this gentleman may render

Of whom he had this ring.
Post, [Aside] What 's that to him ?

Gym, That diamond upon your finger, say

How came it yours ?
lach. Thou 'It torture me to leave unspoken that

Which, to be spoke, would torture thee.
Gym, How! me? 140

lach, I am glad to be constrained to utter that

Which torments me to conceal. By villany

I got this ring: 'twas Leonatus' jewel;

Whom thou didst banish; and — which more may
grieve thee,

As it doth me, — a nobler sir ne'er lived

13^

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my
lord?

Cym. All that belongs to this.

lach. That paragon, thy daughter,

For whom my heart drops blood and my false spirits
Quail to remember — Give me leave ; I faint.

Cym, My daughter ? what of her ? Renew thy strength :
I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will 151
Than die ere I hear more : strive, man, and speak.

lack. Upon a time — unhappy was the clock

That struck the hour ! — it was in Rome, — accurst
The mansion where ! — 'twas at a feast, — O, would
Our viands had been poison'd, or at least
Those which I heaved to head! — ^the good Pos-

thumus, —
What should I say ? he was too good to be
Where ill men were ; and was the best of all
Amongst the rarest of good ones — sitting sadly, 160
Hearing us praise our loves of Italy
For beauty that made barren the swelled boast
Of him that best could speak ; for feature, laming
The shrine of Venus, or straight-pight Minerva,
Postures beyond brief nature ; for condition,
A shop of all the qualities that man
Loves woman for ; besides that hook of wiving.
Fairness which strikes the eye —

^ym. I stand on fire :

Come to the matter.

^ocA. All too soon I shall,

Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthu-

mus.
Most like a noble lord in love and one 171

That had a royal lover, took his hint,

139

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

And not dispraising whom we praised, — therein

He was as calm as virtue — he began

His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being

made,
And then a mind put in 't, either our brags
Were crack'd of kitchen-trulls, or his description
Proved us unspeaking sots.

Cym, Nay, nay, to the purpose.

lach. Your daughter's chastity — there it begins.

He spake of her, as Dian had hot dreams, i8o

And she alone were cold : whereat I, wretch.
Made scruple of his praise, and wager'd with him
Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore
Upon his honoured linger, to attain
In suit the place of 's bed and win this ring
By hers and mine adultery : he, true knight,
No lesser of her honour confident
Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring ;
And would so, had it been a carbuncle
Of Phoebus' wheel ; and might so safely, had it igo
Been all the worth of 's car. Away to Britain
Post I in this design : well may you, sir.
Remember me at court ; where I was taught
Of your chaste daughter the wide difference
'Twixt amorous and villanous. Being thus quench'd
Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain
'Gan in your duller Britain operate
Most vilely ; for my vantage, excellent ;
And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd,
That I retum'd with similar proof enough 200

To make the noble Leonatus mad.
By wounding his belief in her renown

140

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

With tokens thus, and thus ; averring notes

Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet, —

cunning, how I got it ! — ^nay, some marks
Of secret on her person, that he could not
But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd,

1 having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon —
Methinks I see him now —

Post [Advancing] Ay, so thou dost,

Italian fiend ! Ay me, most credulous fool, 210

Egregious murderer, thief, any thing

That 's due to all the villains past, in being.

To come ! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison.

Some upright justicer ! Thou, king, send out

For torturers ingenious : it is I

That all the abhorred things o' the earth amend

By being worse than they. I am Posthumus,

That kiird thy daughter : villain-like, I lie ;

That caused a lesser villain than myself,

A sacrilegious thief, to do 't. The temple 220

Of virtue was she ; yea, and she herself.

Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set

The dogs o' the street to bay me : every villain

Be caird Posthumus Leonatus, and

Be villany less than 'twas ! O Imogen !

My queen, my life, my wife ! O Imogen,

Imogen, Imogen!

Ifno, Peace, my lord ; hear, hear —

Post Shall 's have a play of this ? Thou scornful page,

There lie thy part. [Striking her : she falls.

Pis, O, gentlemen, help! 229

Mine and your mistress ! O, my lord Posthumus !
You ne'er kill'd Imogen till now. Help, help !

141

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Mine honoured lady !
Cym. Does the world go round ?

Post How came these staggers on me ?
Pis, Wake, my mistress!

Cym. If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me

To death with mortal joy.
Pis, How fares my mistress?

Into, O, get thee from my sight ;

Thou gavest me poison : dangerous fellow, hence !

Breathe not where princes are.
Cym. The tune of Imogen !

Pis. Lady,

The gods throw stones of sulphur on me, if 240

That box I gave you was not thought by me
A precious thing : I had it from the queen.

Cym, New matter still ?

Into, It poison'd me.

Cor, O gods!

I left out one thing which the queen confess'd.
Which must approve thee honest : ' If Pisanio
Have,' said she, ' given his mistress that confection
Which I gave him for cordial, she is served
As I would serve a rat.'

Cym, What 's this, Cornelius ?

Cor, The queen, sir, very oft importuned me

To temper poisons for her, still pretending 2S0

The satisfaction of her knowledge only
In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs,
Of no esteem : I, dreading that her purpose
Was of more danger, did compound for her
A certain stuff, which being ta'en would cease
The present power of life, but in short time

142

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

All offices of nature should again

Do their due functions. Have you ta'en of it ?

Imo. Most like I did, for I was dead.

Bel My boys,

There was our error.

Gui, This is, sure, Fidele. 260

Imo, ^^1ly did you throw your wedded lady from you ?
Think that you are upon a rock, and now
Throw me again. [Embracing him.

Post Hang there like fruit, my soul.

Till the tree die !

Cym, How now, my flesh, my child !

What, makest thou me a dullard in this act ?
Wilt thou not speak to me?

^nio. [Kneeling] Your blessing, sir.

•^el [To Gui. and Arv.] Though you did love this youth,
I blame ye not ;
You had a motive for 't.

^ym. My tears that fall

Prove holy water on thee ! Imogen,
Thy mother 's dead.

^-pno. I am sorry for 't, my lord. 270

ym. O, she was naught ; and long of her it was
That we meet here so strangely : but her son
Is gone, we know not how nor where.

w. My lord.

Now fear is from me, I '11 speak troth. Lord Cloten,

Upon my lady's missing, came to me

With his sword drawn; foam'd at the mouth, and

swore,
If I discovered not which way she was gone.
It was my instant death. By accident,

143

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

I had a feigned letter of my master's
Then in my pocket ; which directed him 28(

To seek her on the mountains near to Milf ord ;
Where, in a frenzy, in my master*s garments,
Which he enforced from me, away he posts
With unchaste purpose, and with oath to violate
My lady's honour : what became of him
I further know not.

Giti Let me end the story:

I slew him there.

Cyril, Marry, the gods forfend!

I would not thy good deeds should from my lips
Pluck a hard sentence : prithee, valiant youth.
Deny 't again.

Gut. I have spoke it, and I did it. 29

Cym, He was a prince.

Qui A most incivil one : the wrongs he did me

Were nothing prince-like ; for he did provoke me
With language that would make me spurn the sea.
If it could so roar to me : I cut off 's head ;
And am right glad he is not standing here
To tell this tale of mine.

Cym. I am sorry for thee :

By thine own tongue thou art condemned, and must
Endure our law : thou 'rt dead.

lino. That headless man

I thought had been my lord.

Cym. Bind the offender, 3C

And take him from our presence.

Bel, Stay, sir king:

This man is better than the man he slew,
As well descended as thyself, and hath

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

More of thee merited than a band of Clotens

Had ever scar for. [To the Guard] Let his arms

alone ;
They were not bom for bondage.

Cym, Why, old soldier,

Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for.
By tasting of our wrath ? How of descent
As good as we ?

Arv, In that he spake too far.

Cym, And thou shalt die for 't.

Bel We will die all three: 310

But I will prove that two on 's are as good
As I have given out him. My sons, I must
For mine own part unfold a dangerous speech.
Though haply well for you.

Arv. Your danger 's ours,

^wt. And our good his.

^eL Have at it then, by leave.

Thou hadst, great king, a subject who

Was caird Belarius.
^ym. What of him ? he is

A banished traitor.

^el. He it is that hath

Assumed this age, indeed a banish'd man ;
I know not how a traitor.

^ym. Take him hence: 320

The whole world shall not save him.
-& el Not too hot :

First pay me for the nursing of thy sons ;

And let it be confiscate all, so soon

As I have received it.

^ym. Nursing of my sons !

145

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Bel I am too blunt and saucy : here 's my knee :
Ere I arise I will prefer my sons ;
Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir,
These two young gentlemen, that call me father
And think they are my sons, are none of mine ;
They are the issue of your loins, my liege, 330

And blood of your begetting.

Cym, How ! my issue !

Bel, So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan,
Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd:
Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment
Itself, and all my treason : that I suffered
Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes —
For such and so they are — ^these twenty years
Have I trained up : those arts they have as I
Could put into them ; my breeding was, sir, as
Your highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile, 340
Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children
Upon my banishment : I moved her to 't,
Having received the punishment before
For that which I did then : beaten for loyalty
Excited me to treason : their dear loss.
The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shaped
Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir,
Here are your sons again ; and I must lose
Two of the sweet'st companions in the world.
The benediction of these covering heavens 35^

Fall on their heads like dew ! for they are worthy
To inlay heaven with stars.

Cym, Thou weep'st, and speak'st

The service that you three have done is more
Unlike than this t\\ou IdV^t. 1 \os»t my children:

iAf6

CYMBELINE Act V, Sc. v.

If these be they, I know not how to wish
A pair of worthier sons.

Bel Be pleased awhile.

This gentleman, whom I call Polydore,
Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius :
This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus,
Your younger princely son ; he, sir, was lapp'd 360
In a most curious mantle, wrought by the hand
Of his queen mother, which for more probation
I can with ease produce.

Cym» Guiderius had

Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star ;
It is a mark of wonder.

Bel. This is he;

Who hath upon him still that natural stamp :
It was wise nature's end in the donation,
To be hie evidence now.

Cym. O, what am I ?

A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother
Rejoiced deliverance more. Blest pray you be, 370
That, after this strange starting from your orbs.
You may reign in them now! O Imogen,
Thou hast lost by this a kingdom.

^^0. No, my lord ;

I have got two worlds by 't. O my gentle brothers,
Have we thus met ? O, never say hereafter
But I am truest speaker : you called me brother.
When I was but your sister ; I you brothers.
When ye were so indeed.

Cym, Did you e'er meet?

^rv. Ay, my good lord.

Gmi, And at first meeting loved,

147

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELINE

Continued so, until we thought he died. 380

Cor, By the queen's dram she swallow' d.

Cym. O rare instinct!

When shall I hear all through ? This fierce abridge-
ment
Hath to it circumstantial branches, which
Distinction should be rich in. Where? how lived

you?
And when came you to serve our Roman captive ?
How parted with your brothers ? how first met them ?
Why fled you from the court ? and whither ? These,
And your three motives to the battle, with
I know not how much more, should be demanded ;
And all the other by-dependances, 390

From chance to chance : but nor the time nor place
Will serve our long inter'gatories. See,
Posthumus anchors upon Imogen ;
And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye
On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting
Each object with a joy: the counterchange
Is severally in all. Let 's quit this ground,
And smoke the temple with our sacrifices.
[To Belarius] Thou art my brother; so we'll hold
thee ever.

Into. You are my father too ; and did relieve me, 40
To see this gracious season.

Cym. All o'erjoy'd.

Save these in bonds : let them be joyful too.
For they shall taste our comfort.

Into, My good master,

I will yet do you service.
Luc. Happy be you !

1^^

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

Cym. The forlorn soldier that so nobly fought,

He would have well becomed this place and graced
The thankings of a king.

Post. I am, sir.

The soldier that did company these three

In poor beseeming ; 'twas a fitment for

The purpose I then followed. That I was he, 410

Speak, lachimo : I had you down, and might

Have made you finish.

Jack, [Kneeling] I am down again :

But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee.
As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you,
Which I so often owe : but your ring first ;
And here the bracelet of the truest princess
That ever swore her faith.

^ost. Kneel not to me :

The power that I have on you is to spare you ;
The malice towards you to forgive you : live.
And deal with others better.

^ym. Nobly doom'd! 420

We '11 learn our freeness of a son-in-law ;
Pardon 's the word to all.
-^^t'. You holp us, sir.

As you did mean indeed to be our brother ;
Joy'd are we that you are.

^ost. Your servant, princes. Good my lord of Rome,
Call forth your soothsayer : as I slept, methought
Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd,
Appeared to me, with other spritely shows
Of mine own kindred : when I waked, I found
This label on my bosom ; whose containing 430

Is so from sense in hardness, that I can

149

Act V. Sc. V. CYMBELI^

Make no collection of it : let him show
His skill in the construction.

Luc. Philarmonus !

Sooth. Here, my good lord.

Luc. Read, and declare the meanir

Sooth. [Reads] ' When as a lion's whelp shall, to
himself unknown, without seeking find, and be
embraced by a piece of tender air, and when
from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches,
which, being dead many years, shall after revive,
be jointed to the old stock and freshly grow, 4
then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be
fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.'
Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp ;
The fit and apt construction of thy name.
Being Leo-natus, doth import so much.
[To Cymbeline] The piece of tender air, thy virtuo

daughter.
Which we call ' mollis aer ' ; and ' mollis aer '
We term it ' mulier ' : which ' mulier ' I divine
Is this most constant wife ; who even now,
Answering the letter of the oracle, 4

Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about
With this most tender air.

Cym. This hath some seeming.

Sooth. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline,

Personates thee : and thy lopp'd branches point
Thy two sons forth ; who, by Belarius stol'n,
For many years thought dead, are now revived.
To the most majestic cedar join'd, whose issue
Promises Britain peace and plenty.

Cym. Well ;

ISO

CYMBELINE Act V. Sc. v.

My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius,

Although the victor, we submit to Caesar 460

And to the Roman empire, promising

To pay our wonted tribute, from the which

We were dissuaded by our wicked queen ;

Whom heavens in justice both on her and hers

Have laid most heavy hand.

Sooth. The fingers of the powers above do tune
The harmony of this peace. The vision.
Which I made known to Lucius ere the stroke
Of this yet scarce-cold battle, at this instant
Is full accomplished ; for the Roman eagle, 470

From south to west on wing soaring aloft.
Lessened herself and in the beams o' the sun
So vanished : which foreshow'd our princely eagle.
The imperial Cajsar, should again unite
His favour with the radiant Cymbeline,
Which shines here in the west.

Cym. Laud we the gods ;

And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils
From our blest altars. Publish we this peace
To all our subjects. Set we forward : let
A Roman and a British ensign wave 480

Friendly together : so through Lud's town march ;
And in the temple of great Jupiter
Our peace we '11 ratify ; seal it with feasts.
Set on there ! Never was a war did cease,
Ere bloody hands were washed, with such a peace.

[Exeunt

151

CYMBELINE

Glossary.

Abode; "desire my man's a,,"

i.e. bid my servant to stay; I.

vi. 53-
Absolute, absolutely certain.

positive ; IV. ii. io6.
Abase, deceive; I. vi. 131; IV.

ii. 35 1 ■
Abused, deceived; I. iv. 120;

Adjourn-d, deferred; V. iv. 78.

Admiration, wonder, astonish-
ment; I. iv. 5; I- vi. 38.

— , veneration and wonder;
IV. ii. 232.

Adorer, idolator; I. iv. 72.

Adventure, run the risk; III.
iv. 156.

Adventured, dared, ventured;

After, according to ; IV. ii. 334.
After-eye, look after ; I. Jii. 16.
Air's from, air there is away

from; III. iii. ag.
Albeit, although; II. iii. 60.
AUovi'd, acknowledged ; III.

iii. 17.
Amassed, confused; IV. iii. 28.
Amend, make better; V. v. 216.
Ancient, old, aged; V. iii. 15.
Andirons, irons at the side of

the fire-place : II. iv. 88.

I. \

172.

Advice;
con side rat icm ; I. i. 156.

Afeard, afraid; IV. ii. 94,

Affected, loved; V. v. 38.

Affiance, fidelity ; I. vi. 163.

Affirmation; "bloody a.."
" sealing the truth with his
blood " ; I. iv. 62.

Affront; "gave the a.," con-
fronted the enemy ; V. iii. 87.

— — , confront ; IV. iii. 29.

Afric, Africa; I. i. 167.

After, afterwards; 1. v. 80; I.
vi. so; II. iii. i&

OiE palice of Count BiancalMme.

CYMBELINE

Ape, mimic, imitator ; II. ii. 31.

Apparent, plain, evident ; II. iv.

Apprehension, conception ; IV.

Glossary

Back'd, seated upon the back

of ; V. V. 427.
Base, a game in which the

quickest runner is the win-

Basilisk, the fabulous monster
whose look was supposed to
strike the beholder with
death ; II. iv. 107.

Approbation
130.

I. i

•, prove; IV. ii. 380; V.
V. 245.

Approvers; " their a.," those
who make trial of their cour-
age; II. iv. 25.

Arabian bird, the phcenix; I.

vi. I?.

Arm, take up into the arms;

IV. ii. 40a
Arras, hangings of tapestry; II.

V. iv. 116.
Assumed, put on ; V.
^(, on; III. iv. 193-
Abme, reconcile; I. i
Atlemptable, open t

tion ; I. iv. 63,
Attended, listened to
Attending, doing sei

, awaiting; V. iv. 38.

Averring, alleging; V. v. 21
Avoid! begone I away 1 I. i.

Bale, beat down, deduct; III.

ii. 56.
Bay, bark at ; V. v. 223.
Beastly, like beasts ; III, iii. 40 ;

V. iii. 27-
Becomed, become ; V. v. 406.
Behalf; " in the clock's b.," i.e.

doing the service of a clock ;

tempta- g^i^^ f^^

Bent, cast, look ; I. i. 13.
Beseech, 1 beseech ; I. i. 1
Beseeming, appearance;

Glossary

Be what it is; let tt be what it
may ; V. iv. 149.

Beyond nature, which are im-
mortal ; V. V. 165-

Bier; IV. ii. 22. {See illustra-

CYMBELINE

Bring, accompany, escoi

171.
Brogues, thick shoes ;

214-

Bugs, bugbears; V. i
But, except, without ;

From «n esuly XVIlth ccnturr

ifidil

Bloods, temperaments; I. i. I.
Bold, sure, confident; II. iv. 2
Bondage, obligation; II. iv. in
Book, tablet; V. iv. 133, (See

Notes.)
Boot; " to b.," in addition ; I. \

69:11. iii. 34.
Bore in hand, falsely pretended

abused with false hopes ; V

V. 43-
Bow, makes to bow ; III. iii,
, stoop in entering; III.

Brands, torches; II. iv. 91.
Bravely, well ; II. ii. 15.
Bravery, " state of defiance

Brooms, arms ; IV.
breeding, life; V. ii

CYMBELINE

Glossary

By-peeping, looking aside, side-
long glances (Johnson conj.,
adopted by Steevens, 1773,
lye peeping") Collier MS.,
bo-peeping " ; K e i g h t ley,
bide peeping"; etc., etc.);
I. vi. 108.

Calves'-guts, fiddle-strings; II.

iii. 32.
Capon, perhaps used quibbling-

ly for " cap on," i.e. " with a

coxcomb " ; II. i. 25.
Carl, churl, peasant; V. ii. 4.
Carriage; "your c," carrying

you oflF; III. iv. 190.
Cased, covered; V. iii. 22.
Cave, live in a cave ; IV. ii. 138.
Cave-keeper, one who lives in a

cave ; IV. ii. 298.
Century, hundred; IV. ii. 391.
Certainty, certain results; IV.

iv. 2y.
ChaMess, without chaff; I. vi.

178.
Chance, event, circumstance ;

V. V. 391.
Change you, do you change

colour; I. vi. 11.
Characters, handwriting; III.

ii. 28.

, letters ; IV. ii. 49.

Charge, burden, take hold of;

III. iv. 44.
Charm' d, made invulnerable ;

V. iii. 68.
Charming, having magical, pro-
tecting power ; I. iii. 35.
; "more c," i.e. charming

more, bewitching others

more; V. iii. 32.
^heck, reproof; III. iii. 22.

Cinque-spotted, with five spots ;
II. ii. 38.

Circumstances, details, particu-
lars ; II. iv. 62.

Citizen, cockney-bred, effemi-
nate ; IV. ii. 8.

Civil, civilized ; III. vi. 23.

Clean, altogether; III. vi. 20.

Clipp'd, surrounded, encircled;
II. iii. 139.

Clipp'd about, embraced; V. v.

451.
Close, secret; III. v. 85.
Closet, private chamber; I. v.

84.

Cloth, dress, livery; II. iii. 128.
Clotpoll, head; IV. ii. 184.
Clouted brogues, hob-nailed

boots; IV. ii. 214.
Cloys, strokes with his claws;

V. iv. 118.
Cognizance, visible token; II.

iv. 127.
Collection of, inference from;

V. V. 432.
Colour; " against all c," con-
trary to all appearance of

right; III. i. 51.
Colours; " under her c," i.e.

" under her banner, by her

influence " ; I. iv. 20.
Comfort, happiness, joy; V. v.

403.

Common-kissing, kissing any-
thing and everything; III. iv.
166.

Companion, fellow (used con-
temptuously) ; II. i. 28.

Company, accompany; V. v.
408.

Comparative for, comparing
with ; 11. iu. 12>2>.

155

Glossary

Conclusions, experiments; I. "

Confections, compositi

drugs; I. v. 15; V.
ConHdent; " thn

CYMBELINE

Convince, o

Cordial, reviving to the spirits;

I. V. 64.
C ounter change , exchange; V.

V. 396.
Counters, round pieces of metal

used in calculations ; V. iv.

with the confidence of three

thousand ; V. iii. 29.
ConAners, borderers ; IV. ii.

337-
Confounded, destroyed ; I. iv.

53.
Consequence, succession ; II.

iii. 125-
Consider, pay, reward ; II. iii.

31.
, take into consideration ;

V. V. 28.
Constant-qualified, faithful ; I.

iv. 63.
Construction, interpretation ;

V. V. 43.1-
Consummation, end, death ; IV.

ii. 280.
Containing; " whose c," the

contents of which ; V. v. 430.
Content thee, trouble not thy-
self about it ; I. v. 26.
Convey'd, stolen ; I. i. 63.

Crack' d, blustered, bragged; V.
V. 177.

, broken ; V. v. 207.

Crare, skiff, a small vessel

(Sympson's conj., :
by Steevens; Folios, '
Warburton, adopted

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Theobald, "carrack'*; Han-
mer, " carack ") \ IV. ii. 205.

Crescent, increasing, growing;
I. iv. 2.

Crop, harvest, produce; I. vi.

Curb'd, restrained ; II. iii. 124.
Curious, careful; I. vi. 191.
Cutter, sculptor; II. iv. 83.
Cydnus, a river in Cilicia; II.

iv. 71.
Cytherea, Venus ; II. ii. 14.

Damm*d, stopped up; V. iii. 11.
Dark, mean, obscure; III. iv.

147.

Dear, deeply felt; V. v. 345.

Debitor and creditor, account
book; V. iv. 171.

Decay, destroy; I. v. 56.

Defect; " d of judgement," i.e.
"the defective use of judge-
ment" (Ingleby) ; IV. ii. iii.

Definite, resolute ; I. vi. 43.

Delicate, alluring; (?) ingen-
ious, artful; V. v. 47.

Delighted, delightful; V. iv.

IQ2.

Depend, impend, remain in sus-
pense ; IV. iii. 23.
Depending, resting, leaning; II.

iv. 91.
Desperate; "upon a d. bed,"

dangerously ill; IV. iii. 6.
Despite; " in my d.," in defiance

of me ; IV. i. 16.
Die the death, die a violent

death ; IV. ii. 96.
Differing multitudes, wavering

multitudes, fickle mobs; III.

vi. 86.

Discover, disclose, confess; I.
vi. 98; III. V. 95.

Disedged, surfeited; III. iv. 96.

Dismission, rejection, dismiss-
al; II. iii. 56.

Doomed, decided; V. v. 420.

Doubting, suspecting that ; I. vi.

95.

Drawn, tapped, emptied; V. iv.
168.

Drawn to head, gathered to-
gether, levied; III. v. 25.

Drug-damn'd, detested for its
drugs and poisons; III. iv. 15.

Earnest, money paid before-
hand as a pledge ; I. v. 65.

Elder, elder-tree; IV. ii. 59.

Elder, i.e. later, of more recent
date; V. i. 14.

Elected, chosen; III. iv. 112.

Election, choice; I. ii. 30.

Empery, empire ; I. vi. 120.

Enchafed, enraged; IV. ii. 174.

Encounter, meet; I. iii. 32.

, meet with; I. vi. 112.

Ended, died ; V. v. 30.

Enforce, force, compel; IV. iii.
II.

Enforced, forced; IV. i. 19.

Enlargement, liberty; II. iii.
125.

Entertain, take into service;
IV. ii. 394.

Estate, state, condition ; V. v.

74.
Even, keep pace with, profit by ;

III. iv. 184.

, just; III. vi. 16.

Event, issue, result; III. v. 14.

Ever, ever ready; I. iv. 38.

Exhibition , a\\o^ ^.w'c^\\, n\. vii^

157

Glossary

CYMBELINE

Exorciser, conjurer; IV. ii. 276.

Extend; " to e. him," i.e. to in-
crease his reputation ; I. iv. 21.

; " I do e. him within him-

self/* i.e. I praise him not
more, but even less, than he
deserves; I. i. 25.

Extremity, cruelty; III. iv. 17.

Fail, fault, oflFence (Upton
conj. "fall"); III. iv. 66.

Fairies, evil fairies; II. ii. 9.

FalVn-off, revolted; III. vii. 6.

False, turn false; II. iii. y^.

Fan, winnow, test; I. vi. 177.

Fangled, gaudily ornamented;
V. iv. 134.

Far; " speak him f.," praise
him highly (Folios 3, 4,
"fair''); I. i. 24.

Fast, fasted (Folios 2, 3, 4,
" feast " ; Hanmer, " fast-
ing"; etc.) ; IV. ii. 347.

Fatherly, in a fatherly way; II.
iii. 38.

Favour, beauty, charm; I. vi.
42.

Favour, external appearance ;
IV. ii. 104.

, countenance; V. v. 93.

Fear, fear for; I. iv. 104.

Feared, mixed with fear (Tyr-
whitt conj., adopted by
Knight, " sear'd " ; Hudson,
" sere " ; Elze. conj. " dear " ;
etc., etc.) ; II. iv. 6.

Fearful, full of fear; III. iv. 45.

Feat, dexterous, neat ; V. v. 88.

Feated, fashioned (Rowe,
featur'd'*; Johnson,
feared") ; I. i. 49.

Feature, shape, exterior; V. v.

163.
Fell, cruel ; IV. ii. 109.
Fellows, equals in rank; III.

iv. 93.
Feodary, accomplice ; III. ii. 21.
Fetch, take, I. i. 81.
Fetch in, take, capture; IV. ii.

141.
Fit, ready; III. iv. 171.
Fitment, equipment; V. v. 409-
Fits, befits; III. v. 22.
Fitted, prepared ; V. v. 55.
Fitting, befitting, becoming; V.

v. 98.
Foot, kick; III. v. 149.
For, as for; II. iii. 116; V. iii.

80.
, fit for, only worthy of;

II. iii. 127.
, because; III. iv. 54; IV.

11. 129.
-, for want of; III. vi. 17.

For all, once for all ; II. iii. no.
Fore-end, earlier part; III. iii.

Forespent, previously bestow-
ed; II. iii. 6^.

Forestall, deprive; III. v. 69.

Fore-thinking, fore-seeing, an-
ticipating; III. iv. 171.

Forfeiters, those who forfeit
their bonds ; III. ii. 38.

Forfend, forbid; V. v. 287.

Forlorn, lost, not to be found;
V. V. 405.

Foundations, " quibbling be-
tween fixed places and chari-
table institutions"
(Schmidt) ; III. vi. 7.

Fragments, scraps, remnants of
food; V. iii. 44.

158

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Frame to, conform; II. iii. 50.
Franchise, free exercise; III.

i. 57-
Franklin, yeoman ; III. ii. 79.

Fraught, burden; I. i. 126.

Freeness, generosity; V. v. 421.

Fretted, ornamented, emboss-
ed ; II. iv. 88.

Friend, lover; I. iv. 72.

; "to fr.," for my friend;

I. iv. 112.

Friendly, in a friendly manner ;
V. v. 481.

Frighted, affrighted, fright-
ened; II. iii. 144.

From, away from; I. iv. 17.

, far from; V. v. 431.

Full hearted, full of courage
and confidence; V. iii. 7.

Fumes, delusions; IV. ii. 301.

Furnaces, gives forth like a
furnace; I. vi. 66.

Gain; "g. his colour," i.e. "to
restore him to health " ; IV.
ii. 167.

Gallowses, gallows; V. iv. 210.

'Can, began; V. iii. 37.

Geek, dupe; V. iv. 67.

Gentle, of gentle birth; IV. ii.

39.
Giglot, false, wanton ; III. i. 31.

'Gins, begins; II. iii. 22.

Give me leave, pardon me; V.

y. 149.
Given out, reported, made out;

V. v. 312.
Go back, succumb, give way;

I. iv. no.
Go before, excel ; V. ii. 8.
Go even, accord ; I. iv. 46.

Gordian knot, the celebrated

knot untied by Alexander;

II. ii. 34.
Great court, important court

business; III. v. 50.
Great morning, broad day; IV.

ii. 61.
Guise, practice; V. i. 32.
Gyves, fetters; V. iv. 14.

Habits, garments; V. i. 30.

Hand-fast, marriage engage-
ment; I. V. 78.

Hangings, hanging fruit; III.
iii. 63.

Haply, perhaps; III. iii. 29;

IV. i. 21.

Happy, skilful, gifted; III. iv.

177.
Harder, too hard; III. iv. 164.
Hardiment, boldness, bravery;

V. iv. 75.

Hardiness, hardihood, bra-
very; III. vi. 22.
Hardness, hardship, want; III.

vi. 21.
Have at it, I '11 tell my story ;

V. V. 315.
Have with you! Take me with

you! IV. iv. so.
Having, possessions; I. ii. 19.
Haviour, behaviour; III. iv. 9.
Head, armed force ; IV. ii. 139.
Heaved to head, raised to my

lips; V. V. 157.
Hecuba, the wife of Priam;

IV. ii. 313.
Herblets, small herbs; IV. ii.

287.
Hie thee, hasten; II. iii. 142.
Hilding, mean wretch; II. iii.

127.

159

Glossary

Hind, boor, serf; V. iii.
Hold, fastness ; III. vi, i&
Holp, did help, V. v. 422-
Home, thoroughly; III. v.
Horse-hairs, fiddle-bow;

32.
How much, however

Hunt, game taken

II. i

CYMBELINE

1 excellent posi-

; n. i

Jack-slave, lowborn fellow (;

term of contempt) ; II. i. 21
fay, a loose woman (a te

reproach) ; III. iv. 51.
Jealousy, suspicion ; IV.

Jet. I

; III. ii

Ignorant, silly, inexperienced; Journal, diurnal, daily; IV. ii.
III. i. 27. 10.

Impereeiverant, dull of percep-
tion (Folios, " imperseuer-
mtt " — probably the correct
reading ; Hanmer, " ill-per-
severant") \ IV. i. 15.

Imperious, imperial ; IV. ii. 35.

Importance, import, occasion ; I.
iv. U.

: of

Incivil, uncivil ; V. v. 2
Injurious, malicious.

IV. i

insulting, insolent ;

Instruct, inform ; IV. ii. 360.
Insultment, insult ; III. v. 145.
Into, unlo; I. vi. 167.
Irregulous, lawless, unprinci-
pled ; IV. ii. 31S.

Issues, deeds, i

; II. i

. 79.

of Domltlan.

Jovial; "our J. star" (in the
old astrology, Jupiter was
" the joyfullest star, and of
the happiest augury of all,"
hence propitious, kindlj) ;

311.

Jack, a small bowl at which the
players aimed in the game
of bowls ; " to kiss the jack "
is to have touched the jack,

■- 105.
Jovial, Jove-like ; IV.
Joy'd, rejoiced; V. v. 424.
lump, risk ; V. iv. 186.
Justicer, judge; V. v. 214.

Keep house, stay at home ; III>

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Ken; " within a k.," within
sight; III. vi. 6.

Kitchen-trulls, kitchen-maids ;
V. V. 177.

Knowing, knowledge ; I. iv. 30 ;
II. iii. loi.

Known together, been ac-
quainted with each other; I.
iv. 36.

Label, tablet; V. v. 430.
Laboursome, elaborate; III. iv.

167.
Lady; "my good 1.," (?)

friend; used ironically; II.

iii. 157-

Laming, crippling; V. v. 163.

Lapp'd, wrapped, enfolded; V.
V. 360.

Late, lately; I. i. 6; II. ii. 44.

Laud we, let us praise; V. v.
476.

Lay, wager; I. iv. 154.

Lay the leaven on, corrupt and
deprave; III. iv. 64.

Lean'd unto, bowed to, submit-
ted to; I. i. 78.

Leans, is about to fall ; I. v. 58.

Learned, taught; I. v. 12.

Leave; "by 1.," with your per-
mission; V. V. 315.

■ , leave oflF, cease, I. iv.

106.

Left, left oflF; I. iii. 15.

- — , left off reading; II. ii. 4.

Less; "without 1.," without
more, with less (probably to
be explained as a double
negative) ; I. iv. 23.

Let blood, let suffer, perish;
IV. ii. 168.

Liegers, ambassadors (Folios,

"Leidgers"); I. v. 80.
Like, equal ; I. i. 21 ; V. v. 75.

, the same; IV. ii. 237.

, likely; II. iv. 16.

, equally; III. iii. 41.

Limb-meal, limb from limb; II.
iv. 147.

Line, fill with gold; II. iii. 71.

Long of, through, owing to;
V. V. 271.

Looks us, seems to us; III. v.
32.

Lucina, the goddess of child-
birth; V. iv. 43.

Lud's town, the old name of
London; III. i. 32.

Madded, maddened; IV. ii.

313.
Madding, maddening, making

mad; II. ii. ^y.
Made finish, put an end to ; V.

V. 412.
Makes, produces, causes; I. vi.

38.
Martial, resembling Mars; IV.

ii. 310.
Mary-buds, marigolds; II. iii.

25.
Match, arrangement; III. vi.

30.
Matter, business ; IV. iii. 28.
Mean affairs, ordinary affairs;

III. ii. 52.
Means; "your m.," as to your

means; III. iv. 180.
Mercurial; " foot m.," i.e.

"light and nimble like that

of Mercury •* ; IV. ii. 310.
Mere, utter; IV. i. 92.
Mere, only ; V . n . •>>'>>v

i6i

Glossary

CYMBELINE

Mineral, poison ; V. v. 50.
Minion, darling, favourite; II.

iii. 45-
Misery; "noble m.," miser-
able nobility; V. iii. 64.
Moe, more; III. i. 36.
Moiety, half; I. iv. 114.
Mortal, deadly, fatal; I. iv. 43.
Motion, impulse; II. v. 20.
Motives; "your three m.,*' the

motives of you three; V. v.

388.
Move, induce; I. i. 103.
Moved, incited, instigated; V.

V. 342.
Mows, grimaces, wry faces; I.

vi. 41.
Mulier (fancifully derived

from "mollis aer")\ V. v.

447.
Mutest, most silent; I. vi. 116.

Naught, wicked; V. v. 271.
Neat-herd, keeper of cattle; I.

i. 149.
Nice, capricious; II. v. 26.
Niceness, coyness; III. iv. 158.
Nonpareil, paragon; II. v. 8.
North, north-wind; I. iii. z^.
Note, reputation; I. iv. 2.
, list; (?) "prescription,

receipt " ; I. v. 2.

, eminence; II. iii. 126.

, notice, attention; IV. iii.

44.

— ; "our n.," taking notice

of us; IV. iv. 20.

— , take note, notice; II. ii.

24.
Nothing, not at all; I. iv. 103.
Nothing-gift, gift of no value;
///. Vi. 86,

Now, just now; V. iii. 74.
Numbered, abundantly provi-
ded; I. vi. 36.

Occasions; "over his o.," (?)
=" in regard to what was re-
quired "; according to
some, " beyond what was re-
quired " ; V. V. 87.

'Ods pittikins, a petty oath ; IV.
ii. 293.

O'ergrown, overgrown with
hair and beard; IV. iv. ZZ-

Of, with; I. vi. 150.

, on; II. iii. 118; IV. iv. 48.

, by; II. iii. 137; III. vi.

55; IV. iv. 22; V. v. 346.

, over; IV. i. 23.

, about, in praise of; V. v.

177.
Offer' d; "o. mercy," (?) par-
don granted (but coming too

late) ; I. iii. 4.
On, of; I. V. 75 ; III. iv. 43 ; IV.

ii. 198.
On *s, of us (Folio i, " one's'* ;

Steevens, *' of us " ; Vaughan

conj. " 0* us ") ; V. v. 311.
On't, of it; I. i. 164; V. ii. 3.
Open'd, disclosed; V. v. 58.
Operate, to set to work, to be

active; V. v. 197.
Or, before ; II. iv. 14.
Orhs, orbits ; V. v. 371.
Order'd;

regulated and disciplined; II.

iv. 21.
Orderly, proper; II. iii. 51.
Ordinance, what is ordained;

IV. ii. 145.
Or ere, before; III. ii. 67.
, rather than; V. iii. 50.

" more o.," better

162

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Ouf-peer, excel; III. vi. 87.
Outsell, exceed in value ; II. iv.

102.
Outsells, outvalues, is superior

to; III. V. 74.
Outstood, overstayed; I. vi.

207.
Outward, external appearance;

I. i. 23.

Overbuys, pays too dear a

price; I. i. 146.
Owe, own, III. i. 38.

Packing, running off; (?)

plotting; III. V. 80.
Paid, punished; IV. ii. 246.
Paled in, surrounded; III i. 19.
Pandar, accomplice; III. iv. z^,
Pang'd, pained; III. iv. 98.
Pantler, keeper of the pantry;

II. iii. 128.

Paragon, pattern, model; III.
vi. 44.

Part; " for mine own p.," for
myself; V. v. 313.

Parted, departed ;. III. vi. 52.

Partisan, halberd; IV. ii. 399.

Parts, endowments; III. v. 71.

Passable, affording free pass-
age; I. ii. 10.

Passage, occurrence; III. iv.

94.

Peculiar, own particular, pri-
vate; V. V. S3.

Peevish, foolish; I. vi. 54.

Penetrate, touch; II. iii. 14.

Penitent, repentant; V. iv. 10.

Perfect; "I am p.," I am per-
fectly well aware, I well
know; III. i. 73.

, perfectly well aware ; IV.

ii. 118.

Perforce, by force ; III. i. 72.
Pervert^ diwtrttd; II. iv. 151.
Pinch, pain, pang; I. i. 130.
Pleaseth, if it please; I. v. 5.
Point; " at p.," on the point of;

III. i. 30; III. vi. 17.

Point forth, indicate; V. v.

454.
Post, hasten; V. v. 192.
Posting, hurrying; III. iv. 38.
Postures, shapes, forms; V. v.

165.
Powers, armed forces; III. v.

24.
Practice, plot, stratagem; V. v.

199.
Prefer, recommend; II. iii. 50;

IV. ii. 386.

, promote; V. v. 326.

Preferment, promotion; V. iv.

212.
Pregnant, evident; IV. ii. 325.
Presently, immediately; II. iii.

142.
Pretty, fair, advantageous; III.

iv. 150.
Prides, (?) ostentatious attire;

II. V. 25.

Priest, priestess; I. vi. 133.
Prince, play the prince; III. iii.

8s.
Prize, value (Hanmer, "price" ;
Vaughan, "peise"); III. vi.

77-

Probation, proof; V. v. 362.

Profess myself, proclaim my-
self (by the exuberance of
my praise) ; I. iv. 71.

Prone, eager, ready ; V. iv. 204.

Proof, experience; I. vi. 70;

III. iii. 27.

Proper, handsome; 111. \n. ^

163

Glossary

CYMBELINE

Proper, own ; IV. ii. 97.
Prunes, arranges his plumage

with his bill; V. iv. 118.
Pudency, modesty; II. v. 11.
Put on, incite to, instigate; V.

i. 9.
Puttock, kite; I. i. 140.

Quarrelous, quarrelsome ; III.

iv. 162.
Quartered Ares, camp fires; IV.

iv. 18.
Quench, become cool ; I. v. 47.
Question, put to the trial, i.e.

fight a duel ; II. iv. 52.

Ramps, leaps; I. vi. 134.
Rangers, nymphs; II. iii. 73.
Rank, rankness (used q u i b-

blingly) ; II. i. 16.
Raps, transports; I. vi. 51.
Rare, overpowering, exquisite;

I. i. 135.
Ravening, devouring greedily;

I. vi. 49.

Rased out, erased (Folios,
"rac'd out"); V. v. 70.

Right, truly ; III. v. 3.

Ripely, speedily ; III. v. 22.

Ready, i.e. dressed for going
out, ready dressed (taken
quibblingly in the more ordi-
nary sense in the reply) ; II.
iii. 85.

Reason of, argue about, talk
about; IV. ii. 14.

Reck, care; IV. ii. 154.

Recoil, degenerate; I. vi. 128.

Reffst, didst deprive (Folios,
"refts")\ III. iii. 103.

Relation, hearsay, report; II.
iv. 86.

Remain, remainder, rest; III.
i. 87.

Remainders; "the good r. of
the court,** i.e. "the court
which now gets rid of my
unworthiness " (used ironic-
ally) ; I. i. 129.

Remembrancer of her, he who
reminds her ; I. v. yy.

Render, rendering an account ;
IV. iv. II.

, surrender; V. iv. 17.

, relate, tell; V. v. 135.

Repented, regretted; V. v. 59.

Report; "suffer the r.,*' may
be told; I. iv. 58.

, fame; III. iii. 57.

Resty, torpid; III. vi. 34.

Retire, retreat; V. iii. 40.

Revolt, inconstancy; I. vi. 112.

Revolts, revolters, deserters ;

IV. iv. 6.

Rock, rocky eminence; "such
as a man has found refuge
on in shipwreck '* (Ingleby) ;

V. V. 262.

Romish, Roman; I. vi. 152.
Ruddock, robin redbreast

(Folios, " Raddocke '*) \ IV.

ii. 224.
Runagate, renegade; I. vi. 137.

Safe, sound; IV. ii. 131.

Sample, example; I. i. 48.

Saucy, insolent; I. vi. 151.

Saving reverence, asking par-
don; IV. i. 5.

Say est thou? what do you say?
II. i. 26.

Scorn, mockery; V. iv. 125.

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Scriptures, writings (with per-
haps a suggestion of its ordi-
nary meaning) ; III. iv. 83.

Sear up, probably due to a
blending of (i.) "sear"=:
dry up, with (ii.) " sear " =
" cere," i.e. seal, cover with
wax, as linen is dipped in
melted wax to be used as a
shroud (cp. " cerement,"
"cere cloth*') ; I. i. 116.

Searched, searched for ; V. v. 11.

Season, time; IV. iii. 22.

Seasons comfort, i.e. "gives
happiness its proper zest " ;

I. vi. 9.

See, i.e. see each other; I. i.
124.

Seek through, pursue; IV. ii.
160.

Seem " still s." = ever put on
an appearance; I. i. 3.

Seeming, external appearance;
V. v. 65.

, appearance of fact ; " this

hath some s.," this seems
well founded ; V. v. 452.

Self, same; I. vi. 122.

Self-figured, self -contracted,
formed by themselves
(Theobald conj., adopted by
Warburton, " self -fingered'') ;

II. iii. 123.

Senseless, unconscious; II. iii.

57.
Senseless of, insensible to; I.

i. 135.
Serving; " in their s.," em-
ploying, using them; III. iv.

Set on, forward, march on; V.
V. 484.

Sets, which sets ; I. vi. 170.

Set up, incite; III. iv. 90.

Severally, each in his own way ;
V. v. 397.

Shaked, shaken; I. v. 76.

Shall, will; III. iv. 131.

Shame, shyness, modesty; V.
iii. 22.

Shameless - desperate, shame-
lessly desperate; V. v. 58.

Sharded, protected by scaly
wing-cases ; III. iii. 20.

Shes, women; I. iii. 29.

Shop, store; V. v. 166.

Short, take from, impair; I. vi.
200.

Shot, tavern reckoning, score;
V. iv. 158.

Show, deceitful appearance; V.

V. 54.

Shows, appearances; V. v. 428.

'Shrew me, i.e. beshrew me; a
mild oath ; II. iii. 146.

Shrine, image; V. v. 164.

Silly, simple ; V. iii. 86.

Simular, false, counterfeited ;
V. V. 200.

Single oppositions, single com-
bats ; (?) " when compared
as to particular accomplish-
ments " (Schmidt) ; IV. i. 15.

Sinks, makes to sink; V. v.

413.

Sinon, who persuaded the Tro-
jans to admit into the city
the wooden horse filled with
armed men; III. iv. 61.

Sir, man; I. vi. 160.

Sirrah, a form of address to an
inferior; III. v. 80.

Slight in sufferance, careless in
permitting \t\ \\\. n . '>>'S-

165

Glossary

CYMBELINE

Slip you, let you go free; IV.

iii. 22.
Sluttery, the practice of a slut ;

I. vi. 44.

Snuff, a candle that has been

snuffed; I. vi. 87.
So, it is well ; II. iii. 15.
Solace, take delight ; I. vi. 86.
Soldier to, enlisted to; (?)

equal to ; III. iv. 186.
So like you, if it please you;

II. iii. 58.

Something, somewhat; I. i. 86;

I. iv. 116.
Sometime, sometimes; II. iii.

, once ; V. v. 333.

Sorer, more grievous, more
evil; III. vi. 13.

South-fog; " the S. rot him " ;

it was supposed that the

south wind was charged

with all noxious vapours and

diseases; II. iii. 135.
Spectacles, organs of vision; I.

vi. 37.
Speed; " how you shall s.,"

how you will fare ; V. iv. 190.
Sprightly, of good cheer, in

god spirits; III. vi. 75.

Sprited, haunted; II. iii. 143.
Spritely, spirit-like, ghostly; V.

V. 428.
Spurs, shoots of the root of a

tree; IV. ii. 58.
Staggers, giddiness, reeling; V.

V. 233.
Stand, " station of huntsmen

waiting for game"; II. iii.

74-

Stand, withstand; V. iii. 60.
Stand' St so, dost stand up so;

III. V. 56.
Starve, die of cold; I. iv. 176.
States, "persons of highest

rank"; III. iv. 39.
Statist, statesman, politician ;

II. iv. 16.
Still, continually; II. v. 30.

, always; V. v. 250.

Story, i.e. the subject of the

embroidery on the tapestry;

II. ii. 27.
Story him, give an account of

him; I. iv. 34.
Straight'pight, straight fixed,

erect; V. v. 164.
Strain, impulse, motive ; III. iv.

95.

, stock, race; IV. ii. 24.

Strait, straight; V. iii. 7.
Strange, foreign, a foreigner;

I. vi. 54.
Stricter, more restricted, less

exacting; V. iv. 17.
Stride a limit, overpass the

bound ; III. iii. 35.
Strow, strew; IV. ii. 287.
Suit, clothe ; V. i. 23.
Supplyant, auxiliary; III. vii.

14.
Supplyment, continuance of
supply ( Pope, " supply " ) ;

III. iv. 182.
Sur-addition, surname ; I. i. :i3.
Swathing clothes; I. i. 59. (See

illustration.)
Sweet, sweet-heart (Collier"

MS., "suite"); I. v. 80.
Swerve, go astray, mistake; V—

iv. 129.

166

CYMBELINE

Glossary

Fioin a braw

Syenna, the ruler of Syenna ;

IV. ii. 341.

Synod, assembly of the gods;

V. iv. 89.

Tables, tablets; III. ii. 39.
Take, take pay; III. vi. 24.
Take in, make to yield, over-

Talents; "beyond all t.," ex-
ceeding any sum; 1. vi. 80.

Tanlitigs, those tanned by the
sun; IV. iv. 29.

Targes, targets; "t. of proof,"
targets of tested metal (Fo-
lio 4, " Targets " ; Pope,
"shields"; Capell,
"targets"): V. v. 5.

Taste, feel, experience ; V. v.

fasling of,

experiencing, feel-

ing; V. V

308.

Temper, mi

; V. V

250.

Tender; "t

r present,"

tendering

ur present

gift ; I. vi

208.

Tender of.

sensiti

ve to; III.

Thereto, in addition thereto;

IV. ii

33-

Thick, fast, quickly ; III. ii. 58.
This, this is (S. Walker eonj.

"this'"); II. ii. 50.
Threat, threaten ; IV. ii. 127,
Throughfare, thoroughfare; I,

Throughly, thoroughly; II. iv.

12 ; III, vi. 36.
Thunder-stone, thunder bolt;

IV. ii. 271.
Time, age; I. i, 43-
Tinci, colour ; II. ii. 23.
Tirest on, preyest upon (as a

hawk) ; III. iv. 97.
Titan, the god of the Sun; III.

Title. 1

. 166.

: I.

■ 93-

, in addition t(

Tomboys, hoyden;
Tongue, speak', \

Glossary

CYMBELINE

Touch, feeling, emotion; I. i.

135.
Toys, trifles; IV. ii. 193.

Trims, dress, apparel, III. iv.

167.
Trip me, refute me, give me

the lie; V. v. 35.
Troth, the truth ; V. v. 274.
Trow, I wonder ; I. vi. 47.
True, honest; II. iii. 75.
Truer, more honest man; I. v.

43.
Tune, voice; V. v. 238.

Twinn'd, indistinguishably sim-
ilar ; I. vi. 35.

Unbent; " to be u.," to unbend

thy bow; III. iv. iii.
Undergo, undertake, perform;

I. iv. 148; III. V. no.
Undertake, give satisfaction ;

II. i. 27.

Unparagon'd, matchless; I. iv.

84; II. ii. 17.
Unpaved, castrated; II. iii. 33.
Unprizahle, invaluable; I. iv.

96.
Unspeaking sots, blockheads

wanting power of speech ; V.

V. 178.
Untwine, cease to twine; IV.

ii. 59.
Up, put up; II. IV. 97.
Up-cast, a throw directed

straight up; II. i. 2.
Use; "their u.," they use us;

IV. iv. 7.
Utterance; "at u.," at all haz-
ards; III. i. 73.

Faluation, value; IV. iv. 49.

Vantage, opportunity ; I. iii. 24.

, advantage; V. v. 198.

Vantages, favourable oppor-
tunity; II. iii. 49.

Venge, avenge; I. vi. 92.

Verbal, wordy, verbose; II. iii.
no.

Very Cloten, Cloten himself;

IV. ii. 107.

View; "full of v.," full of
promise; III. iv. 150.

Wage, wager; I. iv. 139.
Waggish, roguish; III. iv. 160.
Waked, awoke; V. v. 429.
Walk, withdraw, walk aside ; I.

i. 176; V. V. 119.
Wanton, one brought up in

luxury; IV. ii. 8.
Warrant, pledge; I. iv. 61.
Watch; "in w.," awake; III.

iv. 43.
Watching, keeping awake for;

II. iv. 68.

Way; "this w.," by acting in

this way; IV. iv. 4.
Weeds, garments; V. i. 23.
Well encounter' dy well met;

III. vi. 66.

Wench-like, womanish; IV. li.

230.
Went before, excelled ; I. iv. 75.
What, what a thing; IV. i. 16.
When as, when (Dyce,

"whenas")\ V. iv. 138; V.

V. 435.

Which, who; II. iii. in.
Whiles, while; I. v. i.
Who, whom ; V. v. 2y.
Whom, which ; III. i. 53.
Windows, eyelids; II. ii. 22.

16E

CYMBELINE

Wink, shut their eyes ; V. iv.

191.
Winking, having the eyes shut;

II.

- 25-

— , blind ; II. iv. 89.

Winter-ground, protect from
inclement weather of the
winter (Collier MS., "win-
ler-guard " ; Bailey conj.
"winter-fend"; Elze, "wind
around") : IV. ii. 22g.

With, by; II. iii. i«; V. iii. 33

Glossary

Woodman, huntsman ; III. vi.

Wrying, swerving; V. i. 5.
You're best, you had better;

British meg:aUth.

CYMBELINE

Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

I. 1. 3. * does the king') Tyrwhitt's conjecture ; Folios, ' do's the
kings ' ; Hanmer, ' do the king's*

I. i. 133. 'A yearns age ' ; this reading seems weak ; 'one expects
some stronger expression. Warburton, adopted by Theobald, * a
yare [i.e. speedy] age ' ; Hanmer, ' many A year's age ' ; Nicholson,
' more than Thy years' age ' ; etc., etc.

I. iii. 9. * make me with this eye or ear ; Folios, ' his ' for ' this.'

I. iv. 21. * are wonderfully to'; Warburton conj. 'aids wonder-
fully to'; Capell conj. 'are wonderful to'; Eccles, 'and wonder-
fully do.'

I. iv. 77-78. ' could not but ' ; Malone's emendation, of Folios,
' could not.'

I. iv. 118. ' herein too ' ; so Folios 3, 4 ; Folios i, 2, ' heerein to ' ;
Grant White, ' herein-to' Anon, con}.,' hereunto' ; Vaughan conj.
' herein, so.'

I. iv. 141. 'afraid'; Warburton's emendation, adopted by Theo-
bald; Folios, 'a Friend'; Becket conj. 'aMed'; Jackson conj.
'afHanc'd'; Collier MS., ' afeard'; Ingleby con], ' her friend.'

I. V. 68. 'chance thou changest on'; so Folios; Rowe reads
' chance thou chancest on ' ; Theobald, ' change thou chancest on.'

I. vi. 25. 'trust — '; BoswelFs reading; Folios, 'trust'; Hanmer,
* truest.' ; Rann, ' truest.' ; Thirlby conj. ' trusty.'

I. vi. 36. * numbered,' ( ?) =* rich in numbers ' ; Theobald, ' un-
numbered' ; Warburton, 'humbl'd'; Farmer conj. 'umbered';
Jackson conj. ' member^d' ; Theobald's excellent emendation has
much to commend it.

I. vi. 45. ' desire vomit emptiness ' ; Johnson explained these
difficult words as follows : — " Desire, when it approached sluttery,
and considered it in comparison with such neat excellence, would
not only be not so allured to feed, but seized with a fit of loathing;
would vomit emptiness, would feel the convulsions of disgust,
though being unfed, it had no object." Pope, 'desire vomit ev'n

CYMBELINE Notes

emptiness ' ; Capell, ' desire vomit to emptiness * ; Hudson, ' desire
vomit from emptiness.'

I. vi. 109. ' unlustrous ' ; Rowe's emendation of Folios, ' illus-
trious ' ; Ingleby, ' ill-lustrous!

II. ii. 49. * hare the raven's eye' \ Theobald's conj., adopted by
Steevens ; Folios, ' hear the Rauens eye!

II. iii. 27. ' With every thing that pretty is ' ; Hanmer (unneces-
sarily, for the sake of the rhyme), ' With all the things that pretty
bin ' ; Warburton, ' With everything that pretty hin!

II. iii. 32. 'vice'; Rowe's emendation of Folios, ' voyce!

II. iii. 51. 'soliciting'; the reading of Collier (ed. 2) ; Folio i
reads ' solicity ' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, ' solicits ' ; Pope, ' solicits!

II. iii. 105. 'Are not'; Warburton's conjecture, adopted by
Theobald, ' cure not ' ; but no change is necessary.

III. i. 20. 'rocks'; Seward conj., adopted by Hanmer; Folios,
' Oakes!

III. i. 54. ' We do,' these words are part of Cymbeline's speech
in Folios; Collier MS. assigns them to Cloten, and the arrange-
ment has been generally adopted.

III. iii. 2. 'Stoop'; Hanmer's emendation of Folios, ' Sleepe!

III. iii. 6. ' turhons ' ; Folio i, ' Turhonds ' ; Folios 2, 3, 4, ' Tur-
bands!

III. iii. 23. ' bauble ' ; Rowe's emendation of Folios, ' Babe ' ;
Hanmer, ' bribe ' ; the latter suggestion has been accepted by many
modern editors ; Brae, ' badge! i.e. decoration, ribbon.

III. iii. 34. 'prison for'; Pope's emendation of Folio i, 'Prison,
or'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Prison or'; Anon conj. and Vaughan conj.,.
'prison of!

III. iii. 83. '/' the cave wherein they bow'; Warburton's
emendation ; Folios, ' I' th' Cave, whereon the Bowe ' ; Rowe, * I'
th' cave, where on the how ; Pope, 'Here in the cave, wherein';
Theobald, '/' th' cave, there, on the brow,' etc.

III. iv. 52. ' Whose mother was her painting,' i.e. * who owed
her beauty to her painted face ' ; or, perhaps * whose painted face
was the sum of her woman-like qualities ' ; according to others,
'whose mother aided and abetted her daughter in her trade.'

III. iv. 81. ' afore't'; Rowe's emendation of Folios, ' a-foot!

III. iv. 104. '/'// wake mine eye-balls blind first'; Hanmer's
emendation ; Folios read ' /' // wake mine eye-balles first ' ; Rowe,
'/'// break mine eye-halls first'; Johnson conj., adopted by Ingle-
by, 'I'll wake mine eye-halls out first'; Collier MS., 'I'll crack
mine eye-halls first!

171

Notes

CYMBELINE

III. iv. 135. Vaughn proposed 'With thai harsh noble — noble
simply in nothing ' ; Spence, ' trash noble ' {i.e. base coin) ; Elzc,
' that ignoble,' etc.

III. iv. 138. 'Where thenf perhaps these words should be as-
signed to Pisanio.

in, iv. 177. 'Which you'll make him know' Hanmer's read-
ing; Folios read ' Which wilt make him ktioTv' ; Theobald, ' Which
will make him so.'

III. V. 44. ' loud' St of noise'; Capell's emendation; Folios i, 2,
' lowd of noise ' ; Rowe, ' loudest noise.'

in V. 72. Possibly, as explained by Johnson, these words are to
be explained as meaning, ' than any lady, than all ladies, than all
womankind ' ; Hanmer, ' than any lady winning from each one.'

III. vi. 71. Perhaps we should read with Hanmer, 'I'd bid';
i.e. ' I 'd bid for you and make up my mind to have you.'

III. vii. 9. 'commends' ; Warburton's emendation, adopted by
Theobald; Folios, * commands' (perhaps^ ' commands to be
given').

IV. ii. 132. 'humour'; Theobald's emendalion of Folios,

IV. i

168. 'parish'; Hanm
Becket conj. 'parage.'
224. ' The ruddock,' et

' marish '; Garrick's

the kindly service of the Robin
Redbreast is often referred to in
Elizabethan literature, e.g.
Covering ivith mass the dead's

unclosed eye.
The little redbreast teachelh
charilie.

Drayton, The Owl.
It is worth while noting that
the story of The Babes in the
Wood was dramatised a
of as 1600 in Yarrington's
Lamentable Tragedies."

IV. iii. 36. '; heard no let-
3. line'; Hanmer reads 'I've had';
conj., and Warburton conj., adopted

ter,' i.e. (?) 'I've not hf
Capell, ' / have had ' ; Mas
by Collier (ed. 2), ' / had.

V. i. 15. ' dread it, to the doers' thrift' ; perhaps thh means that
the guilty benefit by their dread, for their dread makes them re-

172

CYMBELINE

pent, and repentance brings them
salvation. Theobald sugKested

•dreaded . . . thrift •; but
the text, though somewhat dif-
ficult, may be correct.

V. iii. 36. ' thai,' i.e. ' that
death.'

V. iii. 43. 'they'; Theobald's
correction of Folios, 'the'; i.e.
' retracing as slaves the strides
they made as victors.

V. iii. 53. ' Nay, do not wott'
der ' ; Theobald reads ' Nay, do
but wonder' ; Staunton conj.
'Ay, do bill wonder'; " Posthu-
mus first bids him not wonder,
then tells him in another mode
of reproach that wonder was all
he was made for" (Johnson).

V. iv. 1 13. ' Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline.' Cp. the
companying drawing.

mm a group crawnlne th

the celebrated Nautllu*

Majeitv'B collection, {HDlably tbe
woik of German goldsmithi.

V. il

133-

Nobler than that i

V. 54. ' and in time ' ; so Folio i ; Folios a,
'; S. Walker conj. ' amd in due time.' etc.

Notes CYMBELINE

V. V. 263. The stage - direction first inserted by Hanmer. It
explains the meaning of the lines, gets rid of a long series of un-
necessary emendations.

V. V. 305. ' scar ' ; ' had ever s. for,' i.e. had ever received a
scar for; Folios i, 2, * scarre'\ Collier conj. 'sense'; Singer (ed.
2), 'score * Bailey conj. ' soar'

V. V. 378. ' When ye ' ; Rowe's emendation of Folios, ' When
we ' ; Capell, ' When you!

V. V. 382. * Herce,' disordered; (?) vehement, rapid; Collier
conj. 'forced*', Bailey conj. 'brief.*

V. V. 384. ' distinction should he rich in,' i.e. ** Ought to be ren-
dered distinct by a liberal amplitude of narrative" (Steevens).

V. V. 392. ' our long inter' gat ories ■ ) Tyrwhitt conj., adopted by
Malone ; Folios, ' our long Interrogatories.'

17^

CYMBELINE

Explanatory Notes.

The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and
adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the
most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson,
Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Fumess, Dowden, and
others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best
annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition.

ACT FIRST.
Scene !•

25-27. / do extend, etc.: — ^The meaning is, my praise, however
extreme it may appear, is less than the truth warrants: I rather
stop short of his merits than go the full length of them.

31. Tenantius was the father of Cymbeline, and the son of Lud.
On the death of Lud, his younger brother, Cassibelan, took the
throne, to the exclusion of the lineal heir. Cassibelan repulsed
the Romans on their first invasion, but was vanquished on their
second, and agreed to pay an annual tribute to Rome. After his
death, his nephew Tenantius was established on the throne. Some
authorities tell us that he quietly paid the tribute stipulated by his
usurping uncle; others, that he refused it, and warred with the
Romans ; which latter account is the one taken for true by the Poet.

Scene II.

30, 31. she's a good sign, etc. : — To understand the force of this,
it should be remembered that anciently almost every sign had a
motto, or some attempt at a witticism underneath.

Scene IV.

[Enter ... a Dutchman, and a Spaniard.] " It has been ob-
served,** says Verplanck, " that the behaviour of the Spaniard and
the Dutchman, who are stated to be present during this animated
scene, is in humorous accordance with the apathy and taciturnity
usually attributed to their countrymen. Neither the Don nor
Mynheer utters a syllable. * What was Imogen to them, or they
to Imogen/ that they should speak of her? ** WVdXfc ^^-^^ ^^ ^CasLvt

175

Notes CYMBELINE

mere presence has a dramatic value, as indicating the mixed com-
pany of travellers in which this scene takes place."

i6, 17. a great deal from the matter : — That is, makes the de-
scription of him very distant from the truth.

141. afraid, . . . wiser: — ^That is, you are the wiser in fear-
ing to have your wife put to the proof. To screw Posthumus up
to the sticking-point, the villain here imputes his backwardness
to a distrust of his wife, and so Tarings his confidence in her over
to the side of the wager and trial. The original reads, a friend
instead of afraid. The latter word was suggested by Warburton,
and adopted by Theobald. It is not altogether easy to get at the
meaning of a friend in such a connection: besides, Posthumus
has just professed himself "her adorer, not her friend" And
the change is further approved by what lachimo says just after:
** But, I see, you have some religion in you, that you fear " ; tnat is,
evidently, fear to have your wife's honour attempted, lest it ^^ould
give way. It need scarce be said, that to such a man as lachimo
religion and superstition are synonymous terms.

Scene V.

33, 34. / do not like her, etc. : — ^This soliloquy is pronounced by
Johnson to be "very inartificial,'* and he declares that Cornelius
makes " a long speech to tell himself what himself knows." The
speech might deserve such censure, were it not intended for the
audience, to relieve their anxiety at mischievous ingredients being
left in the hands of the Queen. It is no less useful to prepare us
for the seeming return of Imogen from death to life.

84. The violets, cowslips, . . . my closet: — Upon this pas-
sage Clarke has the following : " The art with which the Poet and
dramatist has placed these words in the mouth of this queen mis-
creant is worthy, of remark. He makes her use these beauteous
and innocent products of earth as mere cloaks to her wickedness ;
she concocts ' perfumes ' and * confections * from them as a veil to
the * drugs * and * poisonous compounds ' which she collects for
the fellest purposes. It enhances the effect of her guilt, her thus
forcing these sweet blossoms to become accomplices in her vile
schemes; and we loathe her the more for her surrounding her
unhallowed self with their loveliness. Observe, too, how skil-
fully Shakespeare has made this evil woman order her ladies to
'gather these flowers ' — ^how she desires that they shall be borne

il6

CYMBELINC Notes

to her closet — her laboratory; not gathering or caring for them
herself; not caring for the touch, and scent, and sight of these
gentle things — that all good people instinctively love, and cherish,
and caress. How different is the Poet's treatment of the subject,
where he makes the virtuous Friar Laurence rise with the dawn,
himself to gather the 'precious-juiced flowers,' 'ere the sun ad-
vance his burning eye ' ; and dilating with fond enthusiasm on their
* many virtues excellent,' and philosophizing on their varied quali-
ties and purposes ! '*

Scene VI.

99. What both you spur and stop : — The information which you
seem to press forward and yet withhold. The allusion is to horse-
manship. So in Sidney's Arcadia : " She was like a horse desir-
ous to runne, and miserably spurred, but so short-reined, as he
cannot stirre forward."

210. Concerning the art with which the character of Imogen is
worked out, especially in her interview with lachimo. White, in
his Shakespeare's Scholar, has these just and well-put thoughts:
" The firm, undallying chastity of Imogen is indicated with unsur-
passable tact and skill in this Scene. She is slow to understand
lachimo; but the moment he makes his proposition plainly, before
a word of anger or surprise passes her lips, she calls for the faith-
ful servant of her lord, to remove him who has insulted her and
his friend's honour. Then her indignation bursts from her ; but
again and ag^in she interrupts its flow with What, ho, Pisanio!
She holds no question with him who made such a proposition to
her ; enters into no dispute of why or wherefore : she seeks nothing
but the instantaneous removal of the man who has dared to at-
tempt her chastity. Not only does she refuse all consideration
of the right or wrong of the proposition, but the mere proposal
changes, on the moment, all previous relations between .her and
the proposer, although they were established by her husband him-
self. It is not until her pure soul, as quick to believe good as it
was slow to imagine evil, is quieted by the entire withdrawal of
lachimo's advances, and the assignment of a comprehensible
though not excusable reason for them, that she ceases to call for
him who is in some sort the representative of her husband. An
exquisite touch of the master's hand occurs in a single pronoun
in the succeeding speech of Imogen. Born a princess, she has
given herself to Posthumus, a nameless man, as freely as 11 %\nr.

177

Notes CYMBELINE

were a peasant's daughter ; and she is remarkable, with all her dig-
nity, for her unassuming deportment: but the insult of lachimo
stings her into pride, and, for the first and only time, she takes
her state, and speaks of herself in the plural number. She says,
to expound his beastly mind to us."

ACT SECOND.
Scene L

[Cloten,] The character of Cloten was for a long time thought
to be out of nature and monstrous. But Miss Seward declared
him the exact prototype of a man she once knew : " The unmean-
ing frown of the countenance; the shuffling gait; the burst of
speaking; the bustling insignificance; the fever-and-ague fits of
valour ; the f roward techiness ; the unprincipled malice ; and, what
is most curious, the occasional gleams of good sense amid the
floating clouds of folly which generally darkened and confused
the man's brain, and. which, in Cloten, we are apt to impute to a
violation of unity of character; — but in the sometime Captain
C n I saw the portrait of Cloten was not out of nature."

Scene II.

13. rushes: — It was customary in Shakespeare's time to strew
floors with rushes ; and the Poet, with the license of his art, speaks
as though the same custom had obtained in Rome.

22, 23. windows . . . tinct : — The eyelids are t^e windows of
the eyes. So in Romeo and Juliet, IV. i. 100, loi : " Thy eyes*
windows fall, like death, when he shuts up the day of life." And
in Venus and Adonis : —

" The night of sorrow now is turn'd to day :
Her two ^lue windows faintly she up-heaveth."

This passage is an exact description of the eyelid of a fair beauty,
which is white, laced with veins of blue. By azure is understood
not a dark blue, but a tinct or effusion of a blue colour — ^the blue
of heaven's own tinct. Drayton seems to have had this passage in
his mind : —

" And these sweet veins by nature rightly plac'd,
Wherewith she seems the white skin to have lac^d"

17»

CYMBELINE Notes

45. The tale of Tereus : — Tereus and Progne is the second tale
in A Petite Palace of Pcttie his Pleasure. :S76. The story is re-
lated in Ovid, Metamorphes, 1. vi. , and by Gower in his Con-
fessio Amantis.

48. dragons of the night : — The task of drawing the chariot of
Night was assigned to dragons, on account of their supposed
watchfulness. So in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, III. ii. 379:
" Night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast."

51. The inexpressible purity and delicacy of this Scene have
been often commended and cannot be overpraised. The imagery
all shows " of heaven's own tinct," as though by some secret sym-
pathy it had caught the very life and quality of the subject. Its
richness and rareness enchant the senses; but the enchantment
is wrought so entirely through the imagination, that the senses are
at the same time purified and, as it were, turned into soul in the
contemplation. The description of Imogen would almost engage
our respect upon the describer, but that we already know lachimo
to be one of those passionless minds in which gross thoughts are
most apt to lodge; and that the unaccustomed awe of virtue,
which Imogen struck into him at their first interview, only chas-
tises down his tendencies to gross-thoughtedness while in her
presence. Thus his delicacy of speech only goes to heighten our
impression of Imogen's character inasmuch as it seems to come,
not from him, but from her through him ; and as something that
must be divine indeed, not to be strangled in passing through such
a medium.

Scene III.

20. A similar figure occurs in Paradise Lost, v. 197 : " Ye birds,
that singing up to heaven-gate ascend, bear on your wings and
in your notes His praise." And Shakespeare, in Sonnet XXIX : —

" Haply I think on thee, and then my state.
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate."

Divers other poets, from Chaucer downwards, have the same
figure. The whole song may have been suggested by a passage
in Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe : —

" Who is 't now we hear ?
None but the lark so shrill and clear :

179

Notes CYMBELINE

Now at heaven's gate she claps her wings,
The morn not waking till she sings.
Hark, hark ! with what a pretty throat
Poor robin red-breast tunes his note ;
Hark ! how the jolly cuckoos sing
Cuckoo, to welcome in the spring."

57. Senseless! — "The cunning queen," observes Clarke, "uses
this word with the signification of unconscious; her obtuse son
affrontedly disclaims it, as signifying stupid, devoid of sense.
The angry susceptibility and lechiness of ignorance, just suffi-
ciently aware of its own incapacity to be perpetually afraid that it
is found out and insulted by others, blended with the stolid con-
ceit that invariably accompanies this inadequate self-knowledge,
are all admirably delineated in Cloten: he is a dolt striving to
pass for an accomplished prince, a vulgar boor fancying himself,
and desirous of being taken for, a thorough gentleman."

91. [Imogen.] Mrs. Jameson has this comment of clear insight
and analysis : " Cloten is odious ; but we must not overlook the
peculiar fitness and propriety of his character, in connection with
that of Imogen. He is precisely the kind of man who would be
most intolerable to such a woman. He is a fool — so is Slender,
and Sir Andrew Aguecheek: but the folly of Cloten is not only
ridiculous, but hateful ; it arises not so much from a want of un-
derstanding as a total want of heart ; it is the perversion of senti-
ment, rather than the deficiency of intellect; he has occasional
gleams of sense, but never a touch of feeling. Imogen describes
herself not only as ' sprited with a fool,' but as * frighted and
anger' d worse.' No other fool but Cloten — a compound of the
booby and the villain — could excite in such a mind as Imogen's
the same mixture of terror, contempt, and abhorrence. The stu-
pid, obstinate malignity of Cloten and the wicked machinations of
the queen justify whatever might need excuse in the conduct
of Imogen — as her concealed marriage and her flight from her
father's court — and serve to call out several of the most beautiful
and striking parts of her character : particularly that decision and
vivacity of temper which in her harmonize so beautifully with ex-
ceeding delicacy, sweetness, and submission."

131- 134. thou wert digniHed enough, etc.: — If you were to be
dignified only in comparison to your virtues, the under hangman's
place is too good for you.

CYMBELINE Notes

Scene IV,

76. the true life on *t was : — " lachimo's language," says Johnsor.',
" is such as a skilful villain would naturally use ; a mixture of
airy triumph and serious deposition. His gaiety shows his seri-
ousness to be without anxiety, and his seriousness proves his
gaiety to be without art."

125. All sworn: — It was anciently the custom for the servants
of great families (as it is now for the servants of the king) to take
an oath of fidelity on their entrance into office.

ACT THIRD,
Scene I.

30-33. The famed Cassibelan, etc.: — The Poet has transferred
to Cassibelan an adventure which happened to his brother Nen-
nius. Holinshed says, " The same historic also maketh mention
of Nennius, brother to Cassibelane, who in fight happened to get
Caesar's sword fastened in his shield by a blow which Caesar stroke
at him. But Nennius died, within 15 daies after the battel, of the
hurt received at Caesar's hand; although after he was hurt he
slew Labienus, one of the Roman tribunes."

34-38. Come, etc.: — The pith and shrewdness of this ungeared
and loose-screwed genius here go right to the mark, although they
go off out of time.

60-62. the Hrst of Britain, etc. : — Here the Poet follows Holin-
shed : " Mulmutius, the son of Cloten, got the upper hand of the
other dukes or rulers; and, after his father's decease, began to
reign over the whole monarchy of Britain, in the year of the world
3529. He made many good laws, which were long after used,
called Mulmutius' laws. After he had established his land, he or-
dained him, by the advice of his lords, a crown of gold, and
caused himself with great solemnity to be crowned. And because
he was the first that bore a crown here in Britain, after the opinion
of some writers, he is named the first king of Britain, and all the
other before rehearsed are named rulers, dukes, or governors."

70-77. The main points of this speech are thus set forth in
Holinshed : " Kymbeline was of the Britains made king, after the
decease of his father, in the year of the world 3944, and before the
birth of our Saviour 33. This man, as some write, was brought

181

Notes CYMBELINE

up at Rome, and there made knight by Augustus Caesar, under
whom he served in the wars, and was in such favour with him
that he was at liberty to pay his tribute or not. But here is to be
noted that, although our histories do affirm that Kymbeline lived
in quiet with the Romans, and continually to them paid the trib-
utes which the Britains had covenanted with Julius Caesar to pay,
yet we find in the Roman writers, that after Julius Caesar's death,
when Augustus had taken upon him the rule of the Empire, the
Britains refused to pay that tribute : whereat, as Cornelius Tacitus
report eth, Augustus, being otherwise occupied, was contented to
wink; howbeit, through earnest calling upon to recover his right
by such as were desirous to see the uttermost of the British king-
dom, at length, in the tenth year after the death of Julius Caesar,
Augustus made provision to pass with an army over into Britain,
and was come forward upon his journey into Gallia Celtica, or, as
we may say, into these hither parts of France. But, here receiv-
ing advertisements that the Pannonians, which inhabited the coun-
try now called Hungary, and the Dalmatians, whom we now call
Slavons, had rebelled, he thought it best first to subdue these reb-
els, near home, rather than to seek new countries, and leave such
in hazard whereof he had present possession ; and so, turning his
power against the Pannonians and Dalmatians, he left off for a
time the wars of Britain."

Scene II.

50-73. O, for a horse . . . slow : — Mrs. Jameson quotes these
lines, and remarks thus upon Imogen : " In the eagerness of Imo-
gen to meet her husband there is all a wife's fondness, mixed up
with the breathless hurry arising from a sudden and joyful sur-
prise; but nothing of the picturesque eloquence, the ardent, exu-
berant, Italian imagination of Juliet, who, to gratify her impa-
tience, would have her heralds thoughts ; press into her service the
nimble-pinioned doves, and wind-swift Cupids — change the course
of nature, and lash the steeds of Phoebus to the west. Imogen
only thinks ' one score of miles, 'twixt sun and sun,' slow travel-
ling for a lover, and wishes for a horse with wings."

7^, riding wagers: — This practice was prevalent in Shake-
speare's time. Fynes Moryson, speaking of his brother's putting
out money to be paid with interest on his return from Jerusalem,
defends it as an honest means of gaining the charges of his jour-
ney, especially when ** no meane lords, and lords' sonnes, and gen-

1%2

CYMBCLINE Notes

tlemen in our court, put out money upon a horse-race under them-
selves, yea, upon a journey afoote."

Scene III.

21. full'wing'd eagle: — The epithet full-winged, applied to the
eagle, sufficiently marks the contrast of the Poet's imagery; for
whilst the bird can soar beyond the reach of human eye, the insect
mentioned in the previous line can but just rise above the surface
of the earth, and that at the close of day.

35-39* IVhat should we speak of, etc. : — ^Upon these lines John-
son has this fine observation : " This dread of an old age unsup-
plied with matter for discourse and meditation is a sentiment natu-
ral and noble. No state can be more destitute than that of him
who, when the delights of sense forsake him, has no pleasures of
the mind."

78. [Exeunt Guiderius and Arviragus.] " The princely brothers
in the cave," says Lloyd, " are in a manner common types of natu-
ral Britain, divided off and lying separate from the continental
world ; they are brought up in simplicity but in rudeness, in purity
but in inexperience, in safety but in dullness, but their breed and
blood declare themselves when their spirits rebel at the seclusion,
and prefer to take the noble chances of glory, experience, useful-
ness, recollections, even though scathed in the trial. Posthumus
describes two stages of British progress, undisciplined but daring
against Julius Caesar, now of improved knowledge and skill to aid
their valour, but his own example proves his country still a tyro
when culture of yesterday is matched with the veteran craft and
villainy of centuries. The young princes are rather representa-
tives of the earlier state, but they convey the idea of a fund of
healthy vigour in the background to reinforce the failures of first
attempts, and by their aspirations they set a mark that declares
the country's destiny."

Scene IV,

3. as I have now : — That is, have now longed to see Posthumus.
It would seem something fitter to Imogen's state of mind to read :
" Ne'er long'd his mother so to see him first." Nevertheless, the
sense is clear enough. Daniel changed to " as I do now," wherein
some editors have followed him.

183

Notes CYMBELINE

54. richer than to hang by the walls', — That is, too rich to be
hung up as useless among the neglected contents of a wardrobe.
Clothes were not formerly, as at present, kept in drawers, or given
away as soon as time or change of fashion had impaired their
value. On the contrary, they were hung up on wooden pegs, in a
room appropriated to the purpose ; and, though such as were com-
posed of rich substances were occasionally ripped for domestic
uses, articles of inferior quality were suffered to hang by the walls
till age and moths had destroyed what pride would not permit to
be worn by servants or poor relations. It is said that when Queen
Elizabeth died she was found to have left above three thousand
dresses behind her. Steevens once saw one of those repositories
at an ancient mansion in Suffolk, which had been preserved with
superstitious reverence for almost a century and a half.

139-143' Hath Britain all the sun, etc.: — ^** It seems probable,"
says Knight, " that here, as also on a similar occasion in Richard
II., Shakespeare had in his thoughts a passage in Lyly's Euphues :
' Nature hath given to no man a country, no more than she hath
house, or lands, or living. Plato would never account him ban-
ished that had the sun, air, water, and earth, that he had before:
where he felt the winter's blast, and the summer's blaze; where
the same sun and the same moon shined : whereby he noted that
every place was a country to a wise man, and all parts a palace
to a quiet mind.* "

162. quarrelous as the weasel: — Weasels were formerly kept
in houses, instead of cats, for the purpose of killing vermin. The
Poet no doubt speaks from observation; while a youth he would
have frequent opportunities to ascertain their disposition.

166. common-kissing Titan : — So in Sidney's Arcadia : " And
beautiful might have been, if they had not suffered greedy Phoebus
over often and hard to kisse them."

180, 181. Your means abroad, etc. : — ^As for your subsistence
abroad, you may rely on me.

Scene V.

69. This night forestall, etc. : — That is, may his grief this night
prevent him, by an unexpected and premature death, from ever
seeing another day.

loi. Or this, or perish: — Meaning, probably, I must either
practise this deceit upon Cloten or perish by his fury." Johnson
thought the words should be given to Qoten.

CYMBELINE Notes

Scene VI.

1-27. " Exquisitely feminine throughout," says Clarke, " is this
speech. Its confession of limb-weary fatigue, of faintness from
exhaustion, its moral strength amid physical weakness, its tender
epithet for the husband whose cruel injustice is felt none the
less deeply for the irremovable love she still cherishes for him,
its timid hesitation in calling for help, its vague thought of defence
in best draw my sword, its avowal of greater dread at the very
sight of the sword than the sword-drawer can hope to inspire by
use of the weapon, together with the final softly smiling, half self-
pitying exclamation, half aspiration for divine aid, are all in-
tensely true to the mingled mental courage and bodily delicacy of
such a woman as Imogen, who is the very embodiment of supreme
womanhood."

ACT FOURTH.
Scene I.

15. imperceiverant : — Cloten is a very notable instance of a man
or a thing, with not merely a loose screw in the gearing, but with
all the screws loose. His character reminds us of nothing so
much as the description of Desborough in Woodstock : " His
limbs seemed to act upon different and contradictory principles.
They were not, as the play says, in a concatenation accordingly:
the right hand moved as if it were on bad terms with the left,
and the legs showed an inclination to foot it in different and op-
posite directions." Precisely so it is with Cloten's mind. There
are the materials of a man in him, but they are not made up : his
whole being seems a mass of unhingement, disorder, and jumble,
full of unaccountable jerks and twitches : the several parts of him
hold no mutual intercourse or intelligence, but appear set at in-
curable odds one with another, each having a will and a way of its
own, so that no two of them can pull or strike together. Hence
the excruciating, though at the same time laughable, unfitness of
all that he does, and most that he speaks. He has indeed a rea-
sonable gift of practical shrewdness, is not without frequent
flashes of strong and ready sense ; yet even these, through his
overweening self-importance of rank and place, only serve to in-
vest him all the more with the air of a conceited, blustetiti^, <y:k\\.-

185

Notes CYMBELINE

sequential booby. Rendered ludicrous by whatsoever is best in
him, and rendered frightful by whatsoever is not ludicrous; sav-
age in feeling, awkward in person, absurd in manners; he is of
course just the last man that any lady of sense or sensibility could
be brought to endure. His calling Imogen an imperceiverant
thing for not appreciating his superiority to Posthumus in the
qualities that invite a lady's respect and affection, aptly illustrates
the refined irony with which the character is drawn.

Scene II.

73,74. answering a slave, etc.: — That is, answering one who
called me a slave.

118. / am perfect what: — I know perfectly what I have done.

198. made so much on: — Mrs. Radcliffe, as quoted by Ver-
planck, here says : " No master ever knew how to touch the ac-
cordant springs of sympathy by small circumstances like our own
Shakespeare. In Cymbeline, for instance, how finely such cir-
cumstances are made use of to awaken, at once, solemn expecta-
tion and tenderness, and, by recalling the softened remembrance
of a sorrow long past, to prepare the mind to melt at one that
was approaching; mingling at the same time, by means of a mys-
terious occurrence, a slight tremor of awe with our pity! Thus,
when Belarius and Arviragus return to the cave where they had
left the unhappy and worn-out Imogen to repose, while they are
yet standing before it, and Arviragus — speaking of her with ten-
derest pity as * poor sick Fidele ' — ^goes out to inquire for her, sol-
emn music is heard from the cave, sounded by that harp of which
Guiderius says, ' Since the death of my dearest mother it did not
speak before. All solemn things should answer solemn accidents.'
Immediately, Arviragus enters with Fidele senseless in his arms.
Tears alone can speak the touching simplicity of the whole scene."

215-218. Why, he but sleeps, etc. : — ^John Webster's Vittoria Cor-
ombona has a very noble passage which may have been suggested
by this in the text: —

" O thou soft natural death! thou art joint twin
To sweetest slumber : no rough-bearded comet
Stares on thy mild departure : the dull owl
Beats not against thy casement : the hoarse wolf
Scents not thy carrion: pity winds thy corse,
While horror waits on princes."

186

CYMBELINE Notes

224-229. the ruddock, etc. : — The old writers often sweeten their
lines with the tender reverences here ascribed to the redbreast.
The beautiful superstition is thus spoken of in Thomas Johnson's
Cornucopia, 1596: "The robin redbreast, if he find a man or
woman dead, will cover all his face with mosse ; and some thinke
that if the body should remain unburied he would cover the whole
body also." Webster has the following choice lines, being part
of the dirge sung by Cornelia for young Marcello. in the play
quoted in the preceding note : —

" Call for the robin redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady grove they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men."

Dra3rton, also, has it, evidently in imitation of Shakespeare : —

" Covering with moss the dead's unclosed eye.
The little redbreast teacheth charity."

But perhaps the most touching use of it is in the old ballad of The
Children in the Wood, which is too well known to need quoting
here.
258 ef seq. [Song.] Here is Collins's imitation of this song: —

" To fair Fi dele's grassy tomb

Soft maids and village hinds shall bring
Each opening sweet of earliest bloom.
And rifle all the breathing spring.

No wailing ghost shall dare appear
To vex with shrieks this quiet grove ;

But shepherd lads assemble here,
And melting virgins own their love.

No withered witch shall here be seen;

No goolins lead their nightly crew;
The female fays shall haunt the green,

And dress thy grave with pearly dew.

The redbreast oft, at evening hours.

Shall kindly lend his little aid.
With hoary moss and gathered flowers.

To deck the ground where thou art laid.

187

Notes CYMBELINE

When howling winds and beating rain

In tempests shake the sylvan cell;
Or, midst the chase, on every plain.

The tender thought on thee shall dwell — ;

Each lonely scene shall thee restore;

For thee the tear be truly shed;
Beloved till life can charm no more,

And mourned till pity's self be dead."

" There is nothing to us more striking," says Knight, " than the
contrast which is presented between the free natural lyric sung by
the brothers over the grave of Fidele and the elegant poem which
some have thought so much more beautiful. The one is perfectly
in keeping with all that precedes and all that follows; the other
is entirely out of harmony with its associations. * To fair Fidele's
grassy tomb ' is the dirge of Collins over Fidele ; * Fear no more
the heat o' the sun ' is Fidele's proper funeral song by her bold
brothers."

280. Quiet consummation have : — Probably the best comment on
this is furnished by the closing prayer in the Church Burial Serv-
ice : " That we, with all those who are departed in the true
faith of Thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation
and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting
glory."

White, in his Shakespeare's Scholar, handles these verses rather
unceremoniously, calling them " stiff, formal, artificial rhymes,
worthy only of a verse-crazed cit affecting the pastorals." And
he adds : " The lines are the production of some clumsy prentice
of the Muse." Hudson confesses that, possibly more from long
association than from judgement, the lines feel to him very much
at home where they are, seem to relish of the soil in which they
are represented as growing, and fall in so accordantly with the
spirit of the persons and the occasion, that he can discover na
savour of " affecting the pastorals " in them. Still Hudson does
not think that they were written by Shakespeare. Staunton says :
" There is something so strikingly inferior, both in the thoughts
and expression of the concluding couplet to each stanza in this
song, that we may fairly set them down as additions from the
same hand which furnished the contemptible Masque or Vision
that deforms the last Act."

377-379- ^f ^ do lie, etc. : — " Into the mouth of the pure-souled
Imogen/^ observes Clarke, "Shakespeare has characteristically

CYMBELINE Notes

put this shrinking from the necessity for untruth, and the appeal
to Heaven for divine forgiveness for her reluctantly committed
error. He has depicted the same aversion to falsehood in the in-
nocent and royal-natured Perdita; while he has made even the
princely Florizel condescend to misstatements for the sake of
needful concealment. Thus clearly does the man and poet Shake-
speare denote his genuine perception and appreciation of the
sacredness of truth, at the very time that the dramatic Shake-
speare allows of equivocation as a necessary part of dramatic dis-
guise."

Scene IV.

6. revolts : — So in King John, V. ii. 151 : " And you degener-
ate, you ingrate revolts"

ACT FIFTH.
Scene III.

14 et seq. : — ^In the passage beginning, Close by the battle, etc.,
the Poet availed himself of an incident of Scottish history, which
he found in Holinshed : " There was, near the place of the bat-
tle, a long lane, fenced on both sides with ditches and walls made
of turf, through the which the Scots that fled were beaten down
by the enemies on heaps. Here Hay, with his sons, supposing
they might best stay the flight, placed themselves overthwart the
lane, beat them back whom they met fleeing, and spared neither
friend nor foe, but down they went all such as came within their
reach; wherewith divers hardy personages cried unto their fel-
lows to return back unto the battle."

68. charmed: — Men were supposed to be rendered invulnerable
in battle by charms. So in Chapman's Homer, Iliad, Book iv. :
" Turne head, ye well-rode peeres of Troy, feed not the Grecians
pride; they are not charm' d against your points of Steele." And
Macbeth (V. viii. 11, 12 of the tragedy), when he comes to the
last mortal encounter with Macduff, says to him, referring to the
weird incantations, "Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; I
bear a charmed life."

74-76. being now a favourer, etc.: — ^That is, being but now a
favourer to the Briton, I am a Briton no longer ; I ha.v^ x^vassft.^

189

Notes CYMBELINE

the part I came in, that of a Roman soldier, in which character I
shall find a certain death.

94. [Enter Cymbelinet etc.] This stage direction presents us
with a piece of what the Poet elsewhere calls '' inexplicable dtimb
show/' It is hard to conceive what business such a thing should
have here, unless it were to tickle the eyes of the groundlings;
and in wishing it away, we may well be assured that it is not
Shakespeare's, but was foisted in by the players.

Scene IV.

1,2. The Gaoler alludes to the custom of putting a lock on a
horse's leg when he is turned out to pasture.

14, 15. / cannot . . . constrain' d : — That is, in gyves, or fet-
ters, which are desired by me more than / am constrained to wear
them. The change of subject between desired and constrain' d
makes the passage obscure. So in the next sentence we have
another of those elliptical expressions so frequent in this play,
where brevity is gained at the cost of perspicuity. Posthumus is
representing his conscience as fettered or imprisoned by guilt,
and penitence as the key that is to free it. To purchase this free-
dom, he is willing to repent, even to the laying down of his life.
He is supplicating the gods and begging that mercy may remit
whatsoever is due over and above his life, which is all he can
pay: though this be not a sufficient ransom, yet if it be the main
part of it, he prays them to be content with it, and not exact the
rest.

30. From the stage direction preceding this line to the recn-
trance of the Gaolers, after line 151, we find matter which it is
practically impossible to attribute to Shakespeare. The more
common opinion is, that the interlude was foisted in by the play-
ers, in order to catch the interest of vulgar wonder. That such
things were sometimes done, is indeed beyond question. It may
also be observed that, if this whole section be omitted, there will
appear no gap in the play, unless in the allowing of Posthumus
some space for sleep ; the origin of the tablet being, for aught wc
can see, as well explained without the apparition as with it. Still
there is room for the opinion that the matter was worked in by
the Poet from an older drama either written by himself in his
youth, or found among the stock-copies of the theatre. For,
though the tablet be as well accounted for without the apparition
as with it, in what Posthumus afterwards says of it, yet the for-

190

CYMBELINE Notes

mer is itself as absurd as an3rthing in the latter, and as much be-
low the style of the rest of the play. Nevertheless, the contents
of the tablet are so worked into the dialogue as to make the tablet
itself an inseparable item of the drama. The most likely con-
clusion, then, seems to be, that the Poet found the matter already
in popular favour on the stage, and so worked it in with his own
"noble stuff," for purposes too obvious to need remarking upon.

Scene V.

88. So feat, etc.: — Upon the tribute in this passage paid to
Imogen, Clarke has the following observations : " This gentle
adaptation of herself and her womanly accomplishments to her
assumed office of page crowns the perfection of Imogen's char-
acter. Her power, too, of attracting and attaching all who come
near her — her father, who loves her in spite of the harshness he
has shown her under the influence of his fiendish queen ; her hus-
band, who has been her * playfellow * when a boy, and her lover in
manhood, even after her supposed death; her faithful servant,
Pisanio; her brothers, who know her but as a poor, homeless boy;
Belarius, whose sympathy for the sick youth makes the way forth
seem tedious ; and Lucius, who pleads for the gentle lad's life with
so earnest a warmth, while bearing so affectionate a testimony to
his qualities as a page — ^this power of hers speaks indirectly, but
indisputably, in testimony of her bewitching nature."

319. Assumed this age: — Referring to the different appearance
which he now makes in comparison with that when Cymbeline last
saw him.

334, 335. Your pleasure, etc. : — Belarius means, " My crime, my
punishment, and all the treason that I was accused of, originated
in, and were founded on, your caprice only."

352-354. Thou weep'st, etc. : — ^Johnson explains the passage
thus : " Thy tears give testimony to the sincerity of thy relation ;
and I have the less reason to be incredulous, because the actions
which you have done within my knowledge are more incredible
than the story which you relate."

388. your three motives'. — The motives of you three. So in
Romeo and Juliet, II. iii. 51, "both our remedies" means "the
remedy for us both."

435-442. When as, etc.: — Coleridge remarks upon this strange
"label" as follows: "It is not easy to conjecture why Shake-
speare should have introduced this ludicrous scroll, which answers

191

Notes CYMBELINE

no one purpose, either propulsive or explicatory, unless as a joke
on etymology." Collier thinks " it is very possible that the scroll
and the vision were parts of an older play."

459. My peace we will begin : — " It should apparently be," says
Hudson in his earlier note, " * By peace we will begin,* " and he so
has it in the later Harvard Edition. " The Soothsayer," continues
Hudson, "says that the label promised to Britain 'peace and
plenty.' To which Cymbeline replies, * We will begin with peace
to fulfil the prophecy.*

i a

192

CYMBELINE

Questions on Cymbeline.

1. When was the play probably written?

2. Mention passages that are of doubtful authenticity.

3. What parts of the play were derived from Holinshed ? What
from Boccaccio?

4. State some facts which indicate that Shakespeare had in
mind the fairy tale of " Little Snow-white " in constructing the
story of Imogen.

ACT FIRST.

5. In the opening speech of the First Gentleman what is indi-
cated concerning the character of the king and his power over his
court ?

6r In what fundamental traits are Lear and Cordelia suggested
by Cymbeline and Imogen?

7. State the positions in relation to each other in which we find
the principal actors of the story at the opening of the play. What
is gained by having these facts presented by an observer like the
First Gentleman and not allowing them to be given piecemeal by
the participators in the action? Does this method foreshadow
complexity of plot?

8. Show the Queen's purpose in allowing the interview between
Posthumus and Imogen.

9. What does Posthumus say of his loyalty? How do the ring
and the bracelet enter as elements of the plot?

ID. Where does Imogen show some traces of barbaric spirit?

11. In Sc. ii. are the asides of the Second Lord necessary to
point the imbecility of Cloten ? What effect of " atmosphere," so
to speak, do they produce?

12. What time has elapsed before Sc. iii.? What secondary
though important character does it introduce?

13. Though Posthumus does not lay the wager, which would
be too great a strain for our sympathies, yet how does he provoke
lachimo into proposing it? How is the bargain concluded? WV^

193

Questions CYMBELINE

does Shakespeare introduce two characters — ^the Dutchman and
the Spaniard — in Sc. iv., and give them nothing to say?

14. How in Sc. V. is the cruel nature of the Queen shown? Is
there indication here that the poisons she gives to Pisanio were
intended for any other but him?

15. Comment on the' lofty moral feeling of Imogen as exhibited
during lachimo's attempt upon her chastity? Compare her con-
duct here with Isabella's under similar circumstances in Measure
for Measure. What is seen in Imogen's readiness to forgive?
From a previous knowledge of lachimo does the spectator suspect
the real facts at the bottom of the trunk intrigue?

ACT SECOND.

16. Sc. ii. of Act I. and Sc. i. of Act II. present Cloten, but keep
him outside the action of the play ; what evidently is the dramatic
purpose ?

17. In Sc. ii. what indications of religious feeling does Imogen
give before retiring?

18. What qualities of imagination does lachimo show in the
bedchamber scene? What was the tale of Tereus? How does
this touch suggest the story of Paola and Francesca in The Divine
Comedy ?

19. How is the vulgarity of Cloten shown (Sc. iii.) in contrast
with the song the musicians sing to Imogen?

20. What is effected by the entrance of Cymbeline and the
Queen upon the scene of Cloten's wooing of Imogen? Does
Cloten anywhere but here speak in verse or in elevated language?
What does Shakespeare wish to imply by this means?

21. Explain the psychology of a nature such as Cloten, who
seeks to gain his ends by vilifying another rather than by present-
ing the best in himself.

22. What taunt of Imogen touches his vanity? How does
Cloten show stupidity in failing to see an opportunity for revenge
presented before his eyes ?

23. How was lachimo's description of Imogen's bedchamber
foreshadowed? What is the effect of the details given here that
were omitted in his enumeration while in the chamber? How
nearly contemporaneous would be the scene of the picture of Cleo-
patra on the Cydnus?

CYMBELINE Questions

24. Does Postbumus seem to yield too readily to belief in
Imogen's guilt? How does he show his religious nature? What
is the purpose of the dramatist in withholding the element of
proof that would carry most conviction until after Postbumus had
shown himself persuaded?

25. Is there any purpose in Sc. v. beyond exhibiting the emo-
tional condition of Postbumus? What course is he meditating?

ACT THIRD.

26. Explain the relations of Britain and Rome previous to the
time indicated in Sc. i. How has this scene with Caius Lucius
been prepared for? Comment on the degeneracy of the king as
exhibited here.

27. What command does Postbumus lay upon Pisanio? Why
was his purpose not made known by Postbumus himself when be
was last upon the stage? Compare Pisanio with other link-
persons in Shakespeare's plays and show how he is something
more than a mediary.

28. Comment on the imaginative quality of Imogen's mind.
Compare her speech in Sc. ii. with Juliet's (Romeo and Juliet,
III. ii.) beginning, Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds. Which
possesses more imagination? Do these two speeches convey a
feeling of the difference between the English and Italian tempers ?

29. What preparation has been made for Sc. iii. ? What does
it reveal necessary to a full understanding of the plot? What
does it, in turn, foreshadow ?

30. Shakespeare again reverts to bis favourite device of showing
in contrast the life of courts with the life of the country. Develop
the following suggestions: the effect of nature upon exiles from
the court as seen in The Tempest, As You Like It, and Cymbeline ;
the effect of a rural or a natural life upon the high-born, as seen
in The Winter*s Tale, The Tempest, and Cymbeline.

31. What is the immediate effect upon Imogen of the matter
contained in Postbumus' s letter? To what does she attribute his
defection ?

32. How does this scene exhibit her intellectual qualities?

33. What does she say about self-slaughter? Compare her in
this with Hamlet.

34. What is Imogen's state of mind as shown in line 116 et seq.?
Compare her with Hermione under a similar charg,^.

I9S

Questions CYMBELINE

35. Imagine Helena in this situation ; how would she have borne
herself?

Z6. How does Pisanio provide a solution? In what way is he
an agent for the irony of fate?

^y. How in Sc. v. does the Queen reveal the passion that actuates
her to crime? Compare her with Lady Macbeth.

38. What information does Cloten get concerning the flight of
Imogen? Does he inform Cymbeline and the Queen? What
dramatic use is made of his neglect?

39. What low revenge does he plan?

40. Point out the speech in Sc. vi. that marks the climax of the
play. Show how it also foreshadows the denouement.

ACT FOURTH.

41. How does Cloten compare with Posthumus in physical
form? What was Shakespeare's purpose in showing Cloten with
such disparity between mind and body? Contrast him in this re-
spect with Caliban. How are his voice and manner of speaking
described ?

42. How long may we imagine Imogen to have lived with
Belarius and her two brothers in the cave? What differences do
you see in the characters of Guiderius and Arviragus?

43. What device leaves the stage clear (Sc. ii.) for Guiderius
and Cloten ? How is it fitting that Guiderius should be the slayer
of Cloten? How does the younger brother comment on the act?

44. Show how fatalism is illustrated in deed as well as professed
in words by the three cave-men in the exigency of Cloten*s death.

45. In the apparent death of Imogen we see a situation which
has pivotal relations to nearly all the principal characters. Indi-
cate these relations to the Queen, to Pisanio, to Guiderius and Ar-
viragus, to Posthumus, Cloten, and Lucius.

46. The audience being aware that Imogen is not dead, how
are the obsequies managed so as to escape the ridiculous? Com-
pare the philosophy of the song with that of Hamlet's soliloquy.
Is there dramatic fitness between this song and the singers?
What is suggested by the antiphonal form?

47. In what plight does Sc. iii. present Cymbeline? Why is
this Scene devoted almost entirely to him, who has been a rather
passive agent in the action hitherto ? Does the state of Cymbeline

arouse pity?

ig6

CYMBELINE Questions

48. Does the action of the play pass out of the range of human
agency, as is suggested by Pisanio in the last line of Sc. iii.?

49. In what way does Sc. iv. show that the natural instincts of
man are bound at some time to become too strong for the re-
straints of superficial culture?

ACT FIFTH.

50. How long a time has elapsed since Posthumus was last
seen ? What view does he still hold of Imogen ? What determina-
tion does he take as to his future ?

51. Does Posthumus recognize lachimo in Sc. ii. ? If so, why
does he leave him after overcoming him with arms ?

52. What does the compunction of lachimo foreshadow?

53. What is effected by suggesting the scene in action that is
so vigorously described by Posthumus in Sc. iii.?

54. How is Fortune again shown to act in the preservation of
Posthumus in battle ? How did Posthumus secure his own arrest ?

55. How is remorse shown in Posthumus? What atonement
does he propose making ?

56. Who appear in dumb show ? What do they rehearse ? What
does Jove speak in reply ? Does the show assist in any way in the
resolution of the plot?

57. Compare the speeches of the Gaoler with that of the Porter
in Macbeth, the Gravediggers of Hamlet, and comment on the
quality of humour in the first.

58. Of whom do Cymbeline and Belarius speak at the beginning
of Sc. v.?

59. What dramatic necessity requires the announcement of the
Queen's death early in this Scene?

60. Compare the manner of her death with that of the death of
Lady Macbeth.

61. By what stages does the action lead to the revelation of the
identity of Imogen?

62. How has the Poet prepared the mind of the spectator to look
sjrmpathetically upon lachimo when detection forces his con-
fession ?

63. How does the control of events return once more into the
hands of Pisanio?

64. What brings about the discovery of the identity of Guiderius
and of Arviragus?

197

Questions CYMBELINE

65. To what does the story of Imogen and Posthumus subor-
dinate itself in the last Act?

66. What is the office in the plot of the oracle and its inter-
pretation by the Soothsayer ?

^y. Why is this play named Cymbeline, considering the fact
that the king takes so small a part in the action? What is the
underlying idea of the plot based upon the relations sustained by
Cymbeline to Posthumus, Imogen, Belarius, and indirectly to
Guiderius and Arviragus?

68. This play is full of religious and moral ideas. Do you
think of any other play of Shakespeare's in which the characters
seem so much actuated by professed principles instead of inherent
moral forces?

69. What forms of religious observance are referred to in this
play?

70. Point out passages that contain ideas traceable to the re-
ligion of ancient Rome; to the Druidism of early Britain; to
Christianity. Where are there suggestions of Calvinistic theology ?

71. Has Shakespeare made any play more intricate or more
perfect in construction? Comment especially on the ingenuity
with which he has worked out the denouement.

72. Is this play deficient in humour? Is Cloten a character of
comedy? Does the play suffer for want of comic relief?

73. Do you call the play a tragedy? What inherent necessity
stands in the way of the Queen and Cloten sharing in the general
pardon afforded in the last Act?

74. Wherein resides the charm of Imogen ? Do you agree with
Swinburne that " the woman above all Shakespeare's women is
Imogen " ?

75. What method is largely employed in the delineation of the
character of Posthumus?

76. In the character of Pisanio does Shakespeare once and for
all dispose of the charge that he held the people of the middle
classes in contempt?

19^

The Life of Timon of Athens.

THE
LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS.

Preface.

The First Edition. ** Timon of Athens " was printed
for the first time in the Folio of 1623 ; it occupies twenty-
one pages, from 80 to 98 in the division of " Tragedies "
(pages 81 and 82 being numbered twice over). ''The
Actors' Names " are given on the next page, a blank page
follows, and then comes the play of Julius Ccesar, begin-
ning a new sheet, marked kk instead of ii, and numbered
109. It is noteworthy that " Troilus and Cressida "
would just have filled the space of pages 80-108, and
judging from the fact that its second and third pages are
numbered 79* and 80, one may perhaps safely assume
that Timon took its place in the Folio {vide Preface to
Troilus and Cressida), The text is one of the worst
printed in the volume, and the famous crux " Vllorxa "
(III. iv. 112) may be regarded as typical of the many
errors, resulting from carelessness or other causes.

The Authorship of the Play. The doubtful authorship
of a great part of the play accounts, in all probability, for
the unsatisfactory state of the text; it is now generally
agreed that " Timon " contains a good deal of non-Shake-
spearian alloy. The following pieces do not stand the
test : — Act I. Sc. i. 189 — end of the scene ( ? 249-265 ;
283-294); the whole of Sc. ii. ; Act II. Sc. ii. 45-124;

* Be it observed that the first page of Timon is really 78, not 80 ;
the mistake was due to the numbering of the last page of Romeo
and Juliet, which was marked 79 instead of 77,

Preface THE LIFE OF

Act III., except Sc. vi. 92-109; Act. IV. Sc ii. 30-50, ( ?)
iii. 292-360, 402-415. 456-544; Act V. ( ?) Sc. i. 1-59 ; ii. ;
iii. Various attempts have been made to extract the ore
from this " mineral of metals base," and, purged from
grosser stuff, " Shakespeare's Timon " was issued by the
New Shakespeare Society in the year 1874, embodying
the labours of Mr. Fleay (vide also Shakespeare Manual,
pp. 187-208).*

Various theories have been advanced as to the com-
position of Timon: — (i.) that Shakespeare worked over
an older drama, the remains of which are still to be found
in the inferior portions of the play;f (ii.) that Shake-
speare and another author collaborated; (iii.) that the
play left unfinished by Shakespeare was hastily and care-
lessly completed by some playwright either (a) for stage-
purposes, or {h) for insertion in the First Folio; (iv.)
that the editors of the Folio could only obtain the parts
of the principal actors, and the deficiencies had to be sup-
plied from an earlier Timon,X or by some second-rate

* " The play is, in its present state, unique among Shakespeare's
for its languid, wearisome want of action. This renders it one of
the least read of all his works. But this fault is entirely due to
the passages which I assign to the second writer, not one of which
adds anything to the development of the plot, for they are in
every instance mere expansions of facts mentioned in the genuine
parts of the play."

t The Cambridge Editors seem to hold the view : — " The origi-
nal play, on which Shakespeare worked, must have been written,
for the most part, either in prose or in very irregular verse."
Farmer first suggested this explanation ; Knight followed Farmer,
maintaining that " Timon was a play originally produced by an
artist very inferior to Shakespeare, which probably retained pos-
session of the stage for some time in its first form; that it has
come down to us not wholly rewritten, but so far remodelled that
entire scenes of Shakespeare have been substituted for entire
scenes of the elder play," etc.

X Elze, Delius, and others assign the earlier Timon to George
Wilkins {cp. Preface to Pericles) ; Fleay believes " that Cyril
Tourneur was the only person connected with the King's Com-

TIMON OF ATHENS Preface

dramatist; (v.) that the combination of (i.) and (iii.)
best satisfies all the difficulties.

The Fifth Act of the play gives, me judice, the best
clue to the solution of the problem. It certainly produces
the impression of having been left roughly sketched by
Shakespeare, whose touch is manifest in the more impor-
tant speeches, especially those belonging to the character
of Timon ; but while the Third Scene is clearly not Shake-
speare's, the four-lined epitaph in the Fourth Scene, the
Shakespearian portion, combines two inconsistent couplets,
and the combination could not have been intended by
Shakespeare, though both were naturally in the rough un-
finished MS. ; the poet had evidently not made up his
mind which of the two epitaphs to use, whether Timon's
own, or that which, " commonly rehearsed," was not his
" but was made by the poet Callimachus." *

In all probability Shakespeare's unfinished MS., con-

pany at this time who could have written the other part " of the
play. All this is mere supposition.

* In order that the reader should understand the weight of this
piece of evidence, he should compare Act V. Sc. iv. 11. 70-73 with
its original in North's Plutarch {Life of Antonius) : — " He (Ti-
mon) died in the city of Hales, and was buried upon the seaside.
Now it chanced so that the sea getting in, it compassed his tomb
round about, that no man could come to it ; and upon the same
was written this epitaph : —

"Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft:
Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked wretches

left! "
It is reported that Timon himself when he lived made this epi-
taph ; for that which is commonly rehearsed was not his, but made
by the poet Callimachus : —

" Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate:
Pass by and curse thy fill: but pass, and stay not here thy gait.''

(The substitution of " wicked caitiffs " for " wicked wretches "
suggests a comparison with Paynter's version of the epitaph, be-
ginning " My wretched caitif days" etc.). It is not likely that lines
3, 4 in the previous Scene (V. iii.) are intended for Timon's epi-
taph, though at first sight the rhyming couplet g>\e?> VVvaX. VKvvt^'s*-

Preface THE LIFE OF

taining the main parts of the play already written out,
with the general plan merely outlined, was worked up
after Shakespeare's death into the play we possess ; it
cannot be finally determined whether this elaboration was
undertaken for stage-representation, or for the purpose of
fitting it for a place in the First Folio, when the Editors
had resolved to change the position of Troilus and Cres-
sida."^ Perhaps the printing of Julius Ccesar was com-
menced before that of Timon was finished.

There is no definite evidence of an older play on the
subject that could have been the original of Shake-
speare's,! nor are the inferior portions strikingly sug-
gestive of the style of the old-fashioned productions super-
seded by Shakespeare's revisions or recasts. The MS.
play entitled " Timon," written about the year 1600, edited
for the Shakespeare Society by Dyce in 1842, was in-
tended solely for the amusement of an academic audience,
and there is not the least evidence that it was ever seen
by Shakespeare, t

sion (vide Note). The speech is weak enough as it is without
adding to it the crowning absurdity of making the soldier first
read the epitaph, and then proceed to take the character in wax,
because he cannot read it.

* Dr. Nicholson ( Trans, of New Shak. Soc. 1874) adduced what
he considered "tolerably decisive proof that Timon as we now
have it was an acted play " : — " in old plays the entrance directions
are sometimes in advance of the real entrances, having been thus
placed in the theatre copy, that the performers or bringers-in of
stage-properties might be warned to be in readiness to enter on
their cue." He points out some of these directions in the present
play as printed in the Folio ; but his case, from this point of view,
does not seem strong.

t There seems to be no foundation for Mr. Simpson's statement
that " a Timon was, at the date of the Satiromastix, in the pos-
session of Shakespeare's Company" {New Shak. Soc.y 1874, P-
252) .

X Malone pointed out that there is a scene in it resembling
Shakespeare's banquet given by Timon to his flatterers. Instead

TIMON OF ATHENS Preface

Source of the Plot. A passage in Plutarch's Life of
Antonius (in North's Plutarch) containing a short ac-
count of Timon may have attracted Shakespeare to the
subject of the play. Shakespeare was also acquainted
with Paynter's story of Timon, in " the Palace of Pleas-
ure.^' Other versions of the story are to be found in
Elizabethan literature {e.g. the account of Timon in Rich-
ard Barckley's Felicity of Man). " Critic Timon " is al-
ready referred to by Shakespeare in his early play of
Love's Labour 's Lost,

An interesting comparison might be instituted between
the present play and Lucian's Dialogue on Timon ; it seems
almost certain that directly or indirectly the Dialogue has
exercised considerable influence on the conception of the
drama, though we know of no English or French version
of Lucian's work that Shakespeare could have used ; per-
haps the other author of the play possessed the Greek he
lacked.

Date of Composition. Some of the problems connected
with the composition of Timon have already been indi-
cated. Internal evidence of style is alone available for
fixing the date of Shakespeare's parts of the play.
Esthetic and metrical considerations would place it after
Hamlet — (Coleridge describes it as an '' after- vibration of
Hamlet," but the vibration is rather too harsh and jarring)
— and before the opening of Shakespeare's last period, i.e.
about the same time as Macbeth, Othello, and Lear]
Shakespeare's satirical drama must belong to the period
when, " as the stem censurer of mankind," he reached his
greatest tragic height ; it makes one happy to think that
the pity and terror of tragedy had more attractions for

of warm water, he sets before them stones painted like artichokes,
and afterwards beats them out of the room. The likeness is easily
accounted for by identity of source. The last line of the Third
Act, with its mention of "stones" is noteworthy, seeing that in
the play Timon throws the water in the faces of the guests and
nothing is said about his pelting them with stones. The stage-
direction is not found in the Folios.

Preface

THE LIFE OF

him' than the stem severity of bitter satire; he probably
found the theme uncongenial and cast it aside: —
"No.— I am that / am; and they that level
At my abuses reckon up their own:
I may be straight, though they themselves be bevel;
By their rank thoughts my deeds must not be shown;
Unless this general evil they maintain, —
All men are bad and in their badness reign."

(Sonnet exxi.)

Duration of Action. The time of the play may be
taken as six days represented on the stage, with one long
interval :—

Day 1, Act I. Sc. i., ii. Day 2, Act II. Sc. i., ii. : Act
III. Sc. i.-iii. Day 3, Act III. Sc. iv.-vi. ; Act IV. Sc. i..
ii. Interval. Day 4, Act IV. Sc. iii. Day 5, Act V. Sc.
i., ii. Day 6, Act V. Sc. iii.. iv.

OPAlftNOtOBVNOlOX

EriKrAKfAlKJkHntOUlWr

OAYNOIOl

" On hisgravf-itoHt this inicuifilun " (V. Iv. 67).

From the £l^n Uublu.

TIMON OF ATHENS

Critical Comments.

Argument.

I, The lavish generosity of Timon, a great lord of
Athens, draws to him a throng of sycophants and hang-
ers-on who profit by his careless extravagance. With his
frank, cordial nature he does not suspect their true mis-
sion, but esteems them all his friends. They flatter him
assiduously, and he showers gifts upon them or does
them various good services. He gives a costly banquet
at which the favours are precious stones. The reckless
waste is a matter of much concern to his steward, who
foresees speedy impoverishment.

II, Presently Timon's creditors begin to suspect his
true financial state and press him greatly with bills. The
steward at last succeeds in acquainting his master with
his bankrupt condition. Timon is thunderstruck, but
consoles himself with the thought that he can draw upon
all the men to whom he has been liberal in time past. He
therefore despatches his servants to request from them
loans.

III, The false friends desert him in his hour of need;
nor will they advance him money. Instead they make
specious excuses and even go so far as to importune him
in turn for certain sums. Timon's eyes are opened to
their ingratitude and unworthiness. To express his con-
tempt he gives a final feast, at which nothing is set forth
but warm water. While uttering the bitterest reproaches
he dashes the water in their faces, and ends by throwing

Comments THE LIFE OF

the dishes at them and driving them out of the banquet-
ing-room.

IV. Timon now abjures the society of all mankind,
and seeks refuge in a cave in the woods outside the city,
where he subsists upon the roots of the earth. In dig-
ging them he discovers a hidden treasure of gold, but
takes no pleasure in it, for it brings him only heavy recol-
lections of his folly. He bestows a portion of the gold
upon Alcibiades, a former friend of his who honestly
desires to aid him, and who is now marching against
Athens to humiliate that city for its unjust banishment of
him. Though Timon wishes Alcibiades success, it is not
because he is reconciled with him, but because he desires
the punishment of Athens. The only man whom the
misanthrope will acknowledge to be honest is his faithful
steward, who seeks him out and remains true to him in
adversity. Upon him Timon bestows a liberal gift of the
treasure, enjoining him never to come within his sight
again.

V, The near approach of Alcibiades to Athens causes
the senators to bethink themselves of the neglected Timon.
They visit him in the forest to pray his aid, promising a
restoration of fortune and honour. But Timon greets
their advances with taunts and curses. They return
bootless to the city, which they are shortly after forced to
surrender to Alcibiades. While the conqueror is singling
out his own and Timon's enemies for punishment, he re-
ceives word that Timon is dead within his forest cave.

McSpadden : Shakespearian Synopses.

II.

Timon.

I It marks an approach to hardness and formalism in
\ Shakespeare's conception of character that his Timon is
/adequately summed up in the label he adopts : " I am

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

Misanthropes, and hate mankind." Lear is on the whole
. his neare st Shakespearean analogue. The sting of in-
gratitude isTKe common provocation of both ; and in both
its maddening effect is enhanced by naive ignorance of
men and equally naive exaggeration of their own claims.
Both are simple natures, finely gifted, but quite without
subtlety and penetration ; a single shock throws them off
their balance. But Lear is testy, self-indulgent, arrogant
y and exacting from the first ; while Timon is quixotically
I generous, and thinks his honour concerned to give more
I than is asked, and to repay tenfold what he receives.
Lear's most imperious ethical instinct is that of the primi-
tive Northern tribe — the duty of children to parent; Ti-
mon's is that of the philosophic schools and society of
Athens — the duty of friend to friend. ... In the
I Athens of Timon this noble communism is as dead as the

Iduty of children in the heart of Regan. His disillusion,
as terrible as Lear's, and far nearer, in kind, to common
experience, is far less real, and is worked out with gravely
diminished dramatic resource. His monologues, close
packed, knotty with phrase, but unbroken in their sombre
monotony, take the place of the wonderfully varied and
modulated temper of Lear. His anger pursues its way
like a torrent without pause or change. It is more pene-
trated than Lear's with the hunger for moral retribution,
and the discovery of the gold puts the instrument of it in
his grasp — ^the

damned earth.
Thou common whore of mankind, that put'st odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature.

Of Timon's series of vindictive encounters before his
cave, little but the idea is probably ultimately due to Lu-
cian. The poet may be foreshadowed in Gnathonides,
. the envoys of repentant Athens in Demeas. But Flavins,
Ithe one honest man, is Shakespeare's characteristic cre-
ation, and in Apemantus and Alcibiades he. ^.da.\i\.^^\.Ci*<^^

Comments THE LIFE OF

scheme of Lucian the suggestive hints of Plutarch. In
Plutarch both figure only as the companions of Timon's
misanthropic days, the one his fellow cynic, the other his
destined avenger upon Athens. Shakespeare introduced
both into the picture of Timon's prodigal festivities. The
misanthrope by nature was thus set in sharp contrast with
the misanthrope by disillusion, and the ground was laid
for their encounter in the second part (IV. iii. 198 et seq.)
^with its profoundly imagined discrimination between the
jset hatred grounded in habit and creed and that kindled
by fresh conviction, the misanthropy which is a form of
intellectual self-indulgence, and that which is goaded with
poignant memories.

Herford : The Eversley Shakespeare.

III.
Timon and ShaRespeare.

With few exceptions, those portions of the play in
which Timbn is the speaker can have come from no other
hand than that of Shakspere. If such conjectures were
allowed to possess any worth, one might venture to as-
sert that by the time this play was written, Shakspere had
' mastered the impulses within himself to mere rage against
the evil that is in the world. The impression which the
\ play leaves is that of Shakspere's sanity. He could now
j so fully and fearlessly enter into Timon's mood, because
\ he was now past all danger of Timon's malady. He had
now learned to strive with evil and to subdue it ; he had
now learned to forgive. And therefore he could dare to
utter that wrath against mankind to which he had as-
suredly been tempted, but to which he had never wholly
yielded.

It would seem that about this period Shakspere's mind

was much occupied with the questions, In what temper

are we to receive the injuries inflicted upon us by our

fellow men? How are we to V>e2LT ourselves towards

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

I those that wrong us? How shall we secure our inward
being from chaos amid the evils of the world ? How shall
we attain to the most just and noble attitude of soul in
which life and the injuries of Hfe may be confronted?
Now, here in Timon we see one way in which a man may
make his response to the injuries of life; he may turn
upon the world with a fruitless and suicidal rage. Shak-
spere was interested in the history of Timon, not merely
as a dramatic study, and not merely for the sake of moral
edification, but because he recognized in the Athenian
misanthrope one whom he had known, an intimate ac-
quaintance, the Timon of Shakspere's own breast. Shall
we hesitate to admit that there was, such a Timon in the
breast of Shakspere? We are accustomed to speak of
Shakspere's gentleness and Shakspere's tolerance so
foolishly that we find it easier to conceive of Shak-
spere as indulgent towards baseness and wickedness
than as feeling measureless rage and indignation against
them — rage and indignation which would sometimes
flash bevond their bounds and strike at the whole wicked
race of man. And it is certain that Shakspere's de-
light in human character, his quick and penetrating sym-
i pathy with almost every variety of man, saved him from
I any persistent injustice towards the world. But it can
hardly be doubted that the creator of Hamlet, of Lear,
of Timon, saw clearly, and felt deeply, that there is a
darker side to the world and to the soul of man.

The Shakspere invariably bright, gentle, and genial is
the Shakspere of a myth. The man actually discoverable
behind the plays was a man tempted to passionate ex-
tremes, but of strenuous will, and whose highest self pro-
nounced in favor of sanity. Therefore he resolved that
he would set to rights his material Hfe, and he did so.
And, again, he resolved that he would bring into harmony
with the highest facts Sind laws of the world his spiritual
being, and that in his own high fashion he accomplished
also. The plays impress us as a long study of self-
control — of self-control at one with seli-SMtx^XYdi^x \5^ "^ksfc

^' \

Comments THE LIFE OF

I highest facts and laws of human life. Shakspere set
about attaining self-mastery, not of the petty, pedantic
kind, which can be dictated by a director or described in
a manual, but large, powerful, luminous, and calm ; and
by sustained effort he succeeded in attaining this in the
end. It is impossible to conceive that Shakspere should
have traversed life, and felt its insufficiencies and injuries
and griefs, without incurring Timon's temptation — the
temptation to fierce and barren resentment.

Dowden: Shakspere.

IV.
Alcibiades.

The whole conduct of Alcibiades forms a complete
parallel to that of Coriolanus, and here again the con-
nection between the two plays is obvious. Shakespeare
found a brief account of the mutual relations of Timon
and Alcibiades in North's translation of Plutarch's Life
of Antony y together with a description of Timon's good-
will towards the general on account of the calamities that
he foresaw he would bring upon the Athenians. The
name of Alcibiades would not recall to Shakespeare, as it
does to us, the most glorious period of Greek culture, and
such names as Pericles, Aristophanes, and Plato— he gen-
erally gives Latin names to his Greeks, such as Lucius,
Flavins, Servilius, etc. ; nor did it represent to him the
unrivalled subtlety, charm, instability, and reckless ex-
travagance of the man. He would read Plutarch's com-
parison of Alcibiades and Coriolanus, in which the Greek
and Roman generals are considered homogeneous, and
for Shakespeare Alcibiades was merely the soldier and
commander ; on that account he let him occupy much the
same relation to Timon that Fortinbras did to Hamlet.

Where Timon merely hates, Alcibiades seizes his
• weapons ; and when Timon curses indiscriminately, Alci-
biades punishes severely but deliberately. He does not

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

tear down the city walls and put every tenth citizen to the
sword, as he is invited to do ; he only seeks vengeance on
his personal enemies and those whom he considers guilty.

Brandes : William Shakespeare.

V.
Apemantus.

The character of Apemantus seems designed, in part,
on purpose to illustrate the difference between the intense
hearty misanthropy of Timon and the low v ulgar cynicism
nf ati niitwnrn prnfligatp or superannuated, debauchee.
For in Apemantus we have a specimen of the cynic proper,
who finds his pastime in a sort of scowling buffoonery and
malignant slang; at first setting himself to practise the
arts of a snarling scorner of men, because this feeds his
distempered conceit; and then by dint of such exercise
gradually working himself up into a corresponding pas-
sion. For it is easy to see that the cynicism which now
forms his character originated in sheer affectation. Ti-
mon justly despises the sincere cant of one who thus
drives contempt of mankind as a trade ; for he knows it
to be the offspring of disappointed vanity, seeking to in-
demnify its own baseness by making reprisals on others.
He sees that Apemantus never had in himself a single
touch of the goodness, the alleged want of which he so
much delights to bark at ; and that his superiority to the
common passions of men is all because he has not virtue
enough left to vicious.

Hudson: The Works of Shakespeare.

VI.

Flavius.

I An exception to this general picture of selfish depravity
' is found in the old and honest steward Flavius, to whom
Timon pays a full tribute of tendettvess. ^iVva^^^'^^-^x

Comments THE LIFE OF

1 was unwilling to draw a picture " ugly all over with
\ hypocrisy,'* He owed this character to the good-natured

solicitations of his Muse. His mind might well have

been said to be the " sphere of humanity."

Hazlitt : Characters of Shakespear's Plays,

\ Opposed to this friendship of semblance and falsehood,
\ stands the true and warm affection of Timon's household,
1 especially that of his steward Flavius, whom Timon de-
I clares the only honest man. In an over-civilized, morally
' corrupt state, where the senators are usurers, wher^ the
people abandon themselves to luxury and gluttony, and
banish the more virtuous or leave them to perish from
neglect, and where the army, accompanied by courtesans,
takes up arms against its own country, the little of virtue
and morality that is left takes refuge in the lowest orders.

Ulrici : Shakspeare's Dramatic Art.

VII.
Blankness of Feature.

The want of individualisation of numerous persons in
he play, named and unnamed, is a cause of apparent in-
feriority and infirmity; the forms of shabbiness are
varied among the false friends, but not appropriated.
Shabby tricks to save their money, and shabby means of
obtaining it, do not suffice alone to mark out one mean
man from another by absolute and necessary indication.
Certainly it may be said that this blankness has some
propriety in marking the herd as a herd ; and accordingly,
the omission of* the names of individual friends at the
last banquet of warm and steaming water, is quite con-

» sistent with the rest ; but the play in which blankness of
feature is so largely required or admissible, will lose in
dignity, though it must be admitted that some of the

scenes thus carried on between generic rather than indi-

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

vidual personations — for instance, the opening dialogue of
the Poet and the Painter, have all the appearance of being,
from the first word to the last, entirely Shakespeare's.
Lloyd : Critical Essays on the Plays of Shakespeare.

VIII.
The Non-Shakespearian Elements.

We must now, with a view to defining the non-Shake-
spearian elements of the play, devote some attention to its
dual authorship. In the first act it is particularly the
prose dialogues between Apemantus and others which
seem unworthy of Shakespeare. The repartee is laconic
but laboured — ^not always witty, though invariably bitter
and disdainful. The style somewhat resembles that of
the colloquies between Diogenes and Alexander in
Lyly's Alexander and Campaspe, The first of Apeman-
tus's conversations might have been written by Shake-
speare — it seems to have some sort of continuity with the
utterances of Thersites in Trolius and Cressida — ^but the
second has every appearance of being either' an interpo-
lation by a strange hand, or a scene which Shakespeare
had forgotten to score out. Flavius's monologue (I. ii.)
never came from Shakespeare's pen in this form. Its
marked contrast to the rest shows that it might be the
outcome of notes taken by some blundering shorthand
writer among the audience.

The long conversation, in the second act, between Ape-
mantus,. the Fool, Caphis, and various servants, was, in
all probability written by an alien hand. It contains
nothing but idle chatter devised to amuse the gallery, and
it introduces characters who seem about to take some
standing in the play, but who vanish immediately, leav-
ing no trace. A Page comes with messages and letters
from the mistress of a brothel, to which the Fool appears
to belong, but we are told nothing of the contents of these
letters, whose addresses the bearer is utv^bl^ lo \^^^,

Comments THE LIFE OF

In the third act there is much that is feeble and irrele-
vant, together with an aimless unrest which incessantly
pervades the stage. It is not until the banqueting scene
towards the end of the act that Shakespeare makes his
presence felt in the storm which bursts from Timon's lips.
The powerful fourth act displays Shakespeare at his best
and strongest; there is very little here which could be
attributed to alien sources. I cannot understand the de-
cision with which English critics (including a poet like
Tennyson) have condemned as spurious Flavius's mono-
logue at the close of the second scene. Its drift is that
of the speech in the following scene, in which he ex-
presses the whole spirit of the play in one line : '* What
viler things upon the earth than friends ! " Although
there is evidently some confusion in the third scene (for
example, the intimation of the Poet's and Painter's ap-
pearance long before they really arrive), I cannot agree
with Fleay that Shakespeare had no share in the passagre
contained between the lines, " Where liest o' nights, Ti-
mon ? " and " Thou art the cap of all the fools alive."

One speech in particular betrays the master-hand. It
is that in which Timon expresses the wish that Apeman-
tus's desire to become a beast among beasts may be ful-
filled :—

" If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee : if thou
wert the lamb, the fox would eat thee : if thou wert the fox, the
lion would suspect thee when, peradventure, thou wert accused
by the ass : if thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee :
and still thou livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou wert
the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou shouldst
hazard thy life for thy dinner."

There is as much knowledge of life here as in a con-
centrated essence of all Lafontaine's fables.

The last scenes of the fifth act were evidently never

revised by Shakespeare. It is a comical incongruity that

makes the soldier who, we are expressly told, is unable to

read, capable of distinguishing Timon's tomb, and even

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

of having the forethought to take a wax impression of the
words. There is also an amalgamation of the two con-
tradictory inscriptions, of which the first tells us that the
dead man wishes to remain nameless and unknown, while
the last two lines begin with the declaration, " Here lie I,
Timon." Notwithstanding the shocking condition of the
text, the repeatedly occurring confusion of the action, and
the evident marks of an alien hand, Shakespeare's leading
idea and dominant purpose is never for a moment ob-
scured. Much in Timon reminds us of King Lear, the
injudiciously distributed benefits and the ingratitude of
their recipients are the same, but in the former the bitter-
ness and virulence are tenfold greater, and the genius in-
contestably less. Lear is supported in his misfortunes by
[the brave and manly Kent, the faithful Fool, that truest
of all true hearts, Cordelia, her husband, the valiant King
of France. There is but one who remains faithful to
Timon, a servant, which in those days meant a slave,
whose self-sacrificing devotion forces his master, sorely
against his will, to except one man from his universal vi-
tuperation. In his own class he does not meet with a
single honestly devoted heart, either man's or woman's;
he has no daughter, as Lear ; no mother, as Coriolanus ;
no friend, not one.

Brandes: William Shakespeare,

IX.
Consensus of Critics.

Timon of Athens , of all the works of Shakspeare, pos-
sesses most the character of satire: a laughing satire in
the picture of the parasites and flatterers, and Juvenalian
in the bitterness of Timon's imprecations on the ingrati-
tude of a false world. The story is very simply treated,
and is definitely divided into large masses: in the first
act, the joyous life of Timon, his noble and hospitable
extravagance, and around him the throtv^ oi sx^c^crt^ ^^

Comments THE LIFE OF

every description ; in the second and third acts, his em-
barrassment, and the trial which he is thereby reduced to
make of his supposed friends, who all desert him in the
hour of need ; in the fourth and fifth acts, Timon's flight
to the woods, his misanthropical melancholy, and his
death. The only thing which may be called an episode is
the banishment of Alcibiades, and his return by force of
arms. However, they are both examples of ingratitude
— the one of a state towards its defender, and the other
of private friends to their benefactor. As the merits of the
general towards his fellow citizens suppose more strengtli
of character than those of the generous prodigal, their
respective behaviours are not less different ; Timon frets
himself to death, Alcibiades regains his lost dignity by
force. If the poet very properly sides with Timon against
the common practice of the world, he is, on the other
hand, by no means disposed to spare Timon. Timon was
a fool in his generosity; in his discontent he is a mad-
man : he is everywhere wanting in the wisdom which
enables a man in all things to observe the due measure.
Although the truth of his extravagant feelings is proved
by his death, and though when he digs up a treasure he
spurns the wealth which seems to tempt him, we yet see
distinctly enough that the vanity of wishing to be sin-
gular, in both the parts that he plays, had some share in
his liberal self-forgetfulness, as well as in his anchoritical
seclusion.
ScHLEGEL : Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature.

Timon of Athens is one of Shakspeare's most remark-
able pieces, and in many respects is a problem that has
given editors, interpreters, and critics much to puzzle their
brains with, which has nevertheless not, by any means, as
yet been satisfactorily solved. In the first place the rep-
resentation suffers from a striking want of equality ; some
portions have evidently been worked out with pleasure
and care, others, on the contrary, have been so carelessly

TIMON OF ATHENS Comments

thrown off, and connected in so loose and disjointed a
mariner, that they are not only wanting in strict coherence,
but even contradictions have crept in. It is much the
same as regards the delineation of the characters ; several
of the personages, especially Timon himself, are described
minutely and thoroughly in Shakespeare's usual masterly
style, others are mere sketches drawn with a few touches,
and other again, mere representatives of whole classes of
men. Lastly, similar contradictions pervade the diction :
by the side of lines which, in structure, rhythm, and lin-
guistic character entirely resemble the treatmnt of the
blank verse of Shakspeare's later pieces, we find a loose
and careless prose, unconnected, bounding transitions
from the one form of language to the other, passages of
which it cannot be determined whether they are intended
to be verse or prose; we also find rhyming couplets in
places where Shakspeare does not generally employ them.

Ulrici : Shakspeare' s Dramatic Art.

The play is one of the less celebrated and less attract-
ive among Shakespeare's works. The theme itself is not
the most enticing, and its treatment must be pronounced
to be in many respects unsatisfactory. The inequality of
the execution will be acknowledged by every careful
reader. Some parts are wrought out with great skill and
completeness; others are hastily and rudely sketched,
while certain necessary links seem to be omitted alto-
gether. The versification is often a mystery, and the
prose frequently appears to be written with exceeding
carelessness. But the main characteristic of the play is
I the dark colouring in which it portrays social life. Its
I speech jsjteeped in bitterness; it contains the most vin-
I dictive utterances against mankind to be found in Shake-
Upeare. A noble, generous character is victimized to the
I last degree, and driven forward to suicide. Unselfish-
I ness apparently becomes tragic in a selfish world. Still,
I the other side is not neglected; this vei^ mw^Ol^^xv^^^Ns*

Comments

( seen to be at bottom selfish. Timon is guilty, and has to
take the consequence of his deed. He turns misanthrope,
full of vehement sarcasm and red-hot imprecation. The
latter part of the play, in particular, is a bath of gall.

Snider : The Shakespearian Drama.

The play of Timon is a domestic tragedy, and therefore
strongly fastens on the attention of the reader. In the
plan there is not much art, but the incidents are natural,
and the characters various and exact. The catastrophe
affords a very powerful warning against that ostentatious
liberality, which scatters bounty, but confers no benefits,
and buys flattery, but not friendship. In this tragedy, are
many passages perplexed, obscure, and probably corrupt,
which I have endeavoured to rectify, or explain, with due
diligence; but, having only one copy, cannot promise
myself that my endeavours shall be much applauded.
Johnson : General Observations on Shakspeare's Plays.

Timon of Athens always appeared to us to be written
with as intense a feeling of his subject as any one play of
Shakespear. It is one of the few in which he seems to
be in earnest throughout, never to trifle nor go out of his
way. He does not relax in his efforts, nor lose sight of
the unity of his design. It is the only play of our author
in which spleen is the predominant feeling of the mind.
It is as much a satire as a play : and contains some of the
finest pieces of invective possible to be conceived, both in
the snarling, captious answers of the cynic Apemantus,
and in the impassioned and more terrible imprecations of
Timon.

Hazlitt : Characters of Shakespear^ s Plays.

The Life of

Timon of Athens.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

TiMON, a noble Athenian.

Lucius, ^

LucuLLUs, y flattering lords.

Sempronius, J

Ventidius, one of Timon*s false friends.

Alcibiades, an Athenian captain.

Apemantus, a churlish philosopher.

Flavius, steward to Timon.

Poet, Painter, Jeweller, and Merchant.

An Old Athenian.

Flaminius, "^

LuciLius, > servants to Timon,

Servilius, J

Caphis, ^

Philotus, I

Ttttts L ^^''"^^^^^ ^^ Timon' s creditors and to the

Hortensius, ^^ ^'.

And others, ^

A Page. A Fool. Three Strangers.

> mii

rj. * ^ mistresses to Alcibiades.

TiMANDRA,

Cupid and Amazons in the mask.

Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Banditti, and Attendants.

Scene: Athens, and the neighbouring woods.

The Life of

TIMON OF ATHENS.

ACT FIRST.
Scene I.

Athens, A hall in Timon's house.

Enter Poet, Painter, Jeweller, Merchant, and others,

at several doors.

Poet. Good day, sir.

Pain. I am glad you *re well.

Poet. I have not seen you long : how goes the world ?

Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows.

Poet. Ay, that 's well known :

But what particular rarity ? what strange.
Which manifold record not matches? See,
Magic of bounty ! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.

Pain. I know them both ; th' other 's a jeweller.

Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord !

Jew. Nay, that 's most fix'd.

Mer. A most incomparable man, breathed, as it were, lo
To an untirable and continuate goodness :
He passes.

Jew. I have a jewel here —

Mer. O, pray, let 's see 't : for the Lord Timon, sir ?

Jew. If he will touch the estimate : but, for that —

Poet. [Reciting to himself] * When we for recompense
have praised the vile,

Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

It stains the glory in that happy verse
Which aptly sings the good/

Mer, [Looking on the jewel] 'Tis a good form.

Jezv. And rich : here is a water, look ye.

Pain, You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication
To the great lord.

Poet. A thing slipped idly from me. 20

Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes
From whence 'tis nourished : the fire i* the flint
Shows not till it be struck ; our gentle flame
Provokes itself, and, like the current, flies
Each bound it chafes. What have you there ?

Pain. A picture, sir. When comes your book forth ?

Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir.
Let 's see your piece.

Pain. 'Tis a good piece.

Poet. So 'tis : this comes off well and excellent.

Pain. Indifferent.

Poet. Admirable : how this grace 30

Speaks his own standing ! what a mental power
This eye shoots forth ! how big imagination
Moves in this lip ! to the dumbness of the gesture
One might interpret.

Pain. It is a pretty mocking of the life.
Here is a touch ; is 't good ?

Poet. I will say of it,

It tutors nature : artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life.

Enter certain Senators, and pass over.

Pain. How this lord is followed !
/^tp^/. The senators of Athens : happy man ! 40

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i.

Pain, Look, moe !

Poet. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors.
I have, in this rough work, shaped out a man,
Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment : my free drift
Halts not particularly, but moves itself
In a wide sea of wax : no levelled malice
Infects one comma in the course I hold ;
But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on.
Leaving no tract behind. 50

Pain. How shall I understand you ?

Poet: I will unbolt to you.

You see how all conditions, how all minds.
As well of glib and slippery creatures as
Of grave and austere quality, tender down
Their services to Lord Timon : his large fortune,
L^pon his good and gracious nature hanging.
Subdues and properties to his love and tendance
All sorts of hearts ; yea, from the glass-faced flatterer
To Apemantus, that few things loves better
Than to abhor himself : even he drops down 60

The knee before him, and returns in peace
Most rich in Timon ^s nod.

Pain, I saw them speak together.

Poet, Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill

Feign'd Fortune to be throned : the base o' the mount

Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures.

That labour on the bosom of this sphere

To propagate their states : amongst them all,

Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd.

One do I personate of Lord Timon 's frame.

Whom Fortune with her ivory hand waits lo Vnrx \ ^^

Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

Whose present grace to present slaves and servants
Translates his rivals.

Pain. 'Tis conceived to scope.

This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks,
With one man beckon'd from the rest below.
Bowing his head against the steepy mount
To climb his happiness, would be well expressed
In our condition.

Poet. Nay, sir, but hear me on.

All those which were his fellows but of late.
Some better than his value, on the moment
Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, 80
Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear.
Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him
Drink the free air.

Pain. Ay, marry, what of these ?

Poet, When Fortune in her shift and change of mood
Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants
Which laboured after him to the mountain's top
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot.

Pain. 'Tis common :

A thousand moral paintings I can show, 90

That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's
More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well
To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.

Trumpets sound. Enter Lord Timon, addressing himself
courteously to every suitor; a Messenger from Ven-
tidius talking with him; Lucilius and other servants
following.

Tim. Imprisoned is he, say you ?

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i.

Mess. Ay, my good lord : five talents is his debt ;
His means most short, his creditors most strait :
Your honourable letter he desires
To those have shut him up ; which failing.
Periods his comfort.

Tim, Noble Ventidius! Well,

I am not of that feather to shake off lOO

My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help :
Which he shall have : I '11 pay the debt and free him.

Mess, Your lordship ever binds him.

Tim, Commend me to him : and I will send his ransom ;
And, being enfranchised, bid him come to me :
'Tis not enough to help the feeble up.
But to support him after. Fare you well.

Mess, All happiness to your honour! [Exit,

Enter an old Athenian,

Old At h. Lord Timon, hear me speak.

Tim. Freely, good father, no

Old Ath, Thou hast a servant named Lucilius.

Tim. I have so : what of him ?

Old Ath. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.

Tim. Attends he here, or no ? Lucilius !

Luc. Here, at your lordship's service.

Old Ath, This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature.
By night frequents my house. I am a man
That from my first have been inclined to thrift.
And my estate deserves an heir more raised
Than one which holds a trencher.

Tim, Well, what further ? 120

Old Ath. One only daughter have I, no kltv e.U^^

Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

On whom I may confer what I have got :
The maid is fair, o* the youngest for a bride,
And I have bred her at my dearest cost
In qualities of the best. This man of thine
Attempts her love : I prithee, noble lord,
Join with me to forbid him her resort ;
Myself have spoke in vain.

Tim. The man is honest.

Old Ath. Therefore he will be, Timon :

His honesty rewards him in itself; 130

It must not bear my daughter.

Tim. Does she love him?

Old Ath. She is young and apt :

Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity 's in youth.

Tim. \To Lucilius] Love you the maid?

Luc. Ay, my good lord ; and she accepts of it.

Old Ath. If in her marriage my consent be missing,
I call the gods to witness, I will choose
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world.
And dispossess her all.

Tim. How shall she be endow'd

If she be mated with an equal husband? 140

Old Ath. Three talents on the present; in future, all.

Tim. This gentleman of mine hath served me long :
To build his fortune I will strain a little.
For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter :
What you bestow, in him I '11 counterpoise,
And make him weigh with her.

Old Ath. Most noble lord.

Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.

T/m. Mine hand to thee ; mine honour on my promise.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i.

Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship : never may

That state or fortune fall into my keeping, 150

Which is not owed to you !

[Exeunt Lucilius and Old Athenian,

Poet. Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your lordship !

Tim. I thank you ; you shall hear from me anon :
Go not away. What have you there, my friend ?

Pain, A piece of painting, which I do beseech
Your lordship to accept.

Tim, Painting is welcome.

The painting is almost the natural man ;
For since dishonour traffics with man's nature.
He is but outside : these pencilled figures are
Even such as they give out. I like your work, 160
And you shall find I like it : wait attendance
Till you hear further from me.

Pain, The gods preserve ye !

Tim, Well fare you, gentleman : give me your hand ;
We must needs dine together. Sir, your jewel
Hath suifer'd under praise.

Jew, What, my lord! dispraise?

Tim. A mere satiety of commendations.

If I should pay you for *t as 'tis extoird,
It would unclew me quite.

Jew. My lord, 'tis rated

As those which sell would give: but you well

know.
Things of like value, differing in the owners, 170
Are prized by their masters : believe 't, dear lord.
You mend the jewel by the wearing it.

Tim, Well mock'd.

Mer, No, my good lord ; he speaks the comrcvotvVcycv^^,

Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

Which all men speak with him.
Tim. Look, who comes here : will you be chid ?

Enter Apemantus,

Jew. We '11 bear, with your lordship.
Mer. He '11 spare none.

Tim. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus !
A pern. Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow;
When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest.
Tim. Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st
them not. i8l

Apem. Are they not Athenians?
Tim. Yes.

Apem. Then I repent not.
Jew. You know me, Apemantus?
Apem. Thou know'st I do ; I call'd thee by thy name.
Tim. Thou art proud, Apemantus.

Apem. Of nothing so much as that I am not like Timon.
Tim. Whither art going ? 190

Apem, To knock out an honest Athenian's brains.
Tim. That 's a deed thou 'It die for.
Apem. Right, if doing nothing be death by the law.
Tim. How likest thou this picture, Apemantus ?
Apem. The best, for the innocence.
Tim. Wrought he not well that painted it?

Apem. He wrought better that made the painter ; and
yet he 's but a filthy piece of work.

Pain. You 're a dog.

Apem. Thy mother 's of my generation : what 's she, 200
if I be a dog?

Tim. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus ?

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i.

Apem. No ; I eat not lords.

Tim. An thou shouldst, thou 'Idst anger ladies.

Apem, O, they eat lords ; so they come by great bellies.

Tim, That 's a lascivious apprehension.

Apem. So thou apprehend'st it : take it for thy labour.

Tim. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus?

Apem. Not so well as plain-dealing, which will not

cost a man a doit. 210

Tim. What dost thou think 'tis worth ?
Apem. Not worth my thinking. How now, poet !
Poet. How now, philosopher !
Apem. Thouliest.
Poet. Art not one ?
Apem. Yes.
Poet. Then I lie not.
Apem. Art not a poet?
Poet. Yes.
Apem. Then thou liest : look in thy last work, where 220

thou hast feigned him a worthy fellow.
Poet. That 's not feigned ; he is so.
Apem. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee

for thy labour: he that loves to be flattered is

worthy o' the flatterer. Heavens, that I were

a lord !
Tim. What wouldst do then, Apemantus ?
Apem. E*en as Apemantus does now; hate a lord

with my heart.
Tim. What, thyself? 230

Apem. Ay..
Tim. Wherefore?
Apem. That I had no angry wit to be a lord. Art

not thou a merchant ?

Act I. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

Mer. Ay, Apemantus.

Apem. Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not !

Mer. If traffic do it, the gods do it.

Apem. Traffic 's thy god ; and thy god confound thee !

Trumpet sounds. Enter a Messenger.

Tim. What trumpet 's that ?

Mess. Tis Alcibiades, and some twenty horse, 240

All of companionship.

Tim. Pray, entertain them ; give them guide to us.

{Exeunt some Attendants.
You must needs dine with me : go not you hence
Till I have thank'd you : when dinner's done,
Show me this piece. I am joyful of your sights.

Enter Alcibiades, with the rest.

Most welcome, sir !
Apem. So, so, there !

Aches contract and starve your supple joints !

That there should be small love 'mongst these sweet
knaves.

And all this courtesy ! The strain of man's bred out

Into baboon and monkey. 250

Alcib. Sir, you have saved my longing, and I feed

Most hungerly on your sight.
Tim. Right welcome, sir!

Ere we depart, we '11 share a bounteous time

In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in.

{Exeunt all but Apemantus.

Enter two Lords.
First Lord. What time o' day, is 't Apemantus?

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. i.

Apem. Time to be honest.

First Lord, That time serves still.

Apem. The most accursed thou, that still omitt'st it.

Sec. Lord. Thou art going to Lord Timon's feast ?

Apem. Ay, to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools. 260

Sec. Lord. Fare thee well, fare thee well.

Apem. Thou art a fool to bid me farewell twice.

Sec. Lord. Why, Apemantus?

Apem. Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean

to give thee none.
First Lord. Hang thyself !
Apem. No, I will do nothing at thy bidding: make

thy requests to thy friend.
Sec. Lord. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I '11 spurn thee

hence ! 270

Apem. I will fly, like a dog, the heels o* the ass. [Exit.

First Lord. He's opposite to humanity. Come, shall we in,
And taste Lord Timon's bounty? he outgoes
The very heart of kindness.

Sec. Lord. He pours it out ; Plutus, the god of gold,
Is but his steward : no meed, but he repays
Sevenfold above itself ; no gift to him.
But breeds the giver a return exceeding
All use of quittance.

First Lord. The noblest mind he carries

That ever governed man. 280

Sec. Lord. Long may he live in fortunes ! Shall we in ?
First Lord. V\\ keep you company. [Exeunt.

Act I. Sc. li. THE LIFE OF

Scene IL

A Banque ting-room in Timon^s house.

Hautboys playing loud music, A great banquet served in;
Flavius and others attending; and then enter Lord
Timon, Alcibiades, Lords, Senators, and Ventidius.
Then comes, dropping after all, Apemantus, discon-
tentedly, like himself.

Ven. Most honoured Timon,

It hath pleased the gods to remember my father's age,.

And call him to long peace.

He is gone happy, and has left me rich :

Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound

To your free heart, I do return those talents,

Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help

I derived liberty.

Tim. O, by no means.

Honest Ventidius ; you mistake my love :

I gave it freely ever ; and there 's none lo

Can truly say he gives, if he receives :

If our betters play at that game, we must not dare

To imitate them ; faults that are rich are fair.

Ven. A noble spirit !

Tim. Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes.
Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown ;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Pray, sit ; more welcome are ye to my fortunes
Than my fortunes to me. [They sit. 20

First Lord. My lord, we always have confessed it.

Apem. Ho, ho, confessed it! hang'd it, have you not?

Tim. O, Apemantus, you are welcome.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii.

Apem, No ;

You shall not make me welcome :
I come to have thee thrust me out of doors.

Tim, Fie, thou 'rt a churl ; ye Ve got a humour there
Does not become a man ; 'tis much to blame.
They say, my lords, ^ ira furor brevis est' ; but
yond man is ever angry. Go, let him have a,
table by himself; for he does neither affect 30
company, nor is lie fit for 't indeed.

Apem, Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon :

I come to observe ; I give thee warning on 't.

Tim, I take no heed of thee ; thou 'rt an Athenian,
therefore welcome: I myself would have no
power ; prithee, let my meat make thee silent.

Apem, I scorn thy meat; 'twould choke me, for I
should ne'er flatter thee. O you gods, what a
number of men eat Timon, and he sees 'em not !
It grieves me to s6e so many dip their meat in 40
one man's blood; and all the madness is, he
cheers them tip too.

I wonder men dare trust themselves with men :
Methinks they should invite them without knives ;
Good for their meat, and safer for their lives.
There 's much example for 't ; the fellow that sits
next him now, parts bread with him, pledges the
breath of him in a divided draught, is the readiest
man to kill him : 't has been proved. If I were
a huge man, I should fear to drink at meals ; 50

Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes :
Great men should drink with harness on their throats.

Tim. My lord, in heart ; and let the health go round.

Sec, Lord. Let it flaw this way, my good lord.

Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Apem. Flow this way! A brave fellow! he keeps
his tides well. Those healths will make thee
and thy state look ill, Timon. Here's that
which is too weak to be a sinner, honest water,
which ne'er left man i' the mire :
This and my food are equals ; there 's no odds : 60
Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods.

Apemantus's Grace.

Immortal gods, I crave no pelf ;

I pray for no man but myself :

Grant I may never prove so fond,

To trust man on his oath. or bond.

Or a harlot for her weeping,

Or a dog that seems a-sleeping.

Or a keeper with my freedom,

Or my friends, if I should need 'em.

Amen. So fall to 't : 70

Rich men sin, and I eat root.

[Eats and drinks.
Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus !
Tim, Captain Alcibiades, your heart 's in the field now.
Alcib. My heart is ever at your service, my lord.

Tim, You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies
than a dinner of friends.

Alcib, So they were bleeding-new, my lord, there 's
no meat like 'em : I could wish my best friend
at such a feast.

Apem, Would all those flatterers were thine enemies, 80
then, that then thou mightst kill 'em and bid me
to 'em !

First Lord. Might we but have that happiness, my

TIMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii.

lord, that you would once use our hearts, whereby
we might express some part of our zeals, we
should think ourselves for ever perfect.

Tim, O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods
themselves have provided that I shall have much
help from you: how had you been my friends
else? why have you that charitable title from 90
thousands, did not you chiefly belong to my
heart? I have told more of you to myself than
you can with modesty speak in your own behalf ;
and thus far I confirm you. O you gods, think
I, what need we have any friends, if we should
ne'er have need of 'em? they were the most
needless creatures living, should we ne'er have
use for 'em, and would most resemble sweet
instruments hung up in cases, that keep their
sounds to themselves. Why, I have often wished 100
myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you.
We are bom to do benefits : and what better or
properer can we call our own than the riches of
our friends? O, what a precious comfort 'tis
to have so many, like brothers, commanding one
another's fortunes ! O joy, e'en made away ere 't
can be bom ! Mine eyes cannot hold out water,
methinks ; to forget their faults, I drink to you.

Apem, Thou weep'st to make them drink, Timon.

Sec. Lord. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, no
And at that instant like a babe sprung up.

Apem. Ho, ho ! I laugh to think that babe a bastard.

Third Lord. I promise you, my lord, you moved me much.

Apem. Much! [Tucket, within.

Tim. What means that trump ?

Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Enter a Servant,

How now !
Serv. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies
most desirous of admittance.

Tim. Ladies ! what are their wills ?

Serv, There comes with them a forerunner, my lord,

which bears that office, to signify their pleasures. 120

Tim, I pray, let them be admitted.

Enter Cupid,

Clip, Hail to thee, worthy Timon ! and to all

That of his bounties taste ! The five best senses
Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely
To gratulate thy plenteous bosom : th' ear.
Taste, touch, and smell, pleased from thy table rise ;
They only now come but to feast thine eyes.

Tim, They *re welcome all ; let 'em have kind admittance :
Music, make their welcome ! [Exit Cupid.

First Lord, You see, my lord, how ample you 're beloved.

Music, Re-enter Cupid, with a mask of Ladies as Ama-
zons, with lutes in their hands, dancing and playing,

A pern. Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way!
They dance ! they are mad women. 132

Like madness is the glory of this life.
As this pomp shows to a little oil and root.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves,
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again
With poisonous spite and envy.
Who lives, that 's not depraved or depraves ?

IMON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii.

Who dies, that bears not one spurn to their graves
Of their friends' gift ? 141

I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me : 't has been done ;
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.

he Lords rise from table, with much adoring of Timon;
and to show their loves, each singles out an Amazon,
and all dance, men with women, a lofty strain or two
to the hautboys, and cease,

im. You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies,
Set a fair fashion on our entertainment.
Which was not half so beautiful and kind ;
You have added worth unto 't and lustre.
And entertain'd me with mine own device :
I am to thank you for 't. 150

irst Lady, My lord, you take us even at the best.

pem. Faith, for the worst is filthy, and would not
hold taking, I doubt me.

im. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you :
Please you to dispose yourselves.

// Lad. Most thankfully, my lord.

[Exeunt Cupid and Ladies.

im. Flavius!

lav. My lord ?

im. The little casket bring me hither.

lav. Yes, my lord. [Aside] More jewels yet!

There is no crossing him in 's humour ; 160

Else I should tell him — well, i' faith, I should —
When all 's spent, he 'Id be crossed then, an he could.
Tis pity bounty had not eyes'behind.
That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind. \^Extt.

Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

First Lord. Where be our men ?
Serv, Here, my lord, in readiness.
Sec, Lord. Our horses !

Re-enter Flavins, with the casket,

Tim, O my friends,

I have one word to say to you: look you, my good

lord,
I must entreat you, honour me so much 170

As to advance this jewel ; accept it and wear it.
Kind my lord.

First Lord. I am so far already in your gifts, —

All. So are we all.

Enter a Servant.

Serzf, My lord, there are certain nobles of the senate
newly alighted and come to visit you.

Tim, They are fairly welcome.

Flav. I beseech your honour, vouchsafe me a word ;
it does concern you near.

Tim. Near ! why, then, another time I '11 hear thee : 180
I prithee, let *s be provided to show them entertain-
ment.

Flav, [Aside] I scarce know how.

Enter another Servant.

Sec. Serv. May it please your honour, Lord Lucius
Out of his free love hath presented to you
Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver.

Tim, I shall accept them fairly: let the presents
Be worthily entertained.

[MON OF ATHENS Act I. Sc. ii.

Enter a third Servant,

How now! what news?

hird Serv. Please you, my lord, that honourable
gentleman, Lord Lucullus, entreats your company
to-morrow to hunt with him, and has sent your 190
honour two brace of greyhounds.

im, I '11 hunt with him ; and let them be received,
Not without fair reward.

lav, [Aside] What will this come to?

He commands us to provide and give great gifts,
And all out of an empty coffer :
Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this.
To show him what a beggar his heart is,
Being of no power to make his wishes good :
His promises fly so beyond his state
That what he speaks is all in debt, he owes 2oe

For every word : he is so kind that he now
Pays interest for 't ; his land 's put to their books.
Well, would I were gently put out of office,
Before I were forced out!
Happier is he that has no friend to feed
Than such that do e'en enemies exceed.
I bleed inwardly for my lord. [Exit.

^im. You do yourselves

Much wrong, you bate too much of your own merits.
Here, my lord, a trifle of our love.

ec. Lord. With more than common thanks I will 210
receive it.

'hird Lord. O, he 's the very soul of bounty !

7;w. And now I remember, my lord, you gave good
words the other day of a bay courser I rode on.
'Tis yours, because you liked it.

Act I. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Third Lord. O, I beseech you, pardon me, my lord,

in that.
Tim. You may take my word, my lord; I know, no

man can justly praise, but what he does affect : I

weigh my friend's affection with mine own : I '11 220

tell you true. I '11 call to you.

All Lords. O, none so welcome.

Tim. I take all and your several visitations

So kind to heart, 'tis not enough to give :

Methinks, I could deal kingdoms to my friends,

And ne'er be weary. Alcibiades,

Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich;

It comes in charity to thee : for all thy living

Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast

Lie in a pitch'd field. 230

Alcih. Ay, defiled land, my lord.

First Lord. We are so virtuously bound —

Tim. And so ,

Am I to you.

Sec. Lord. So infinitely endear'd —

Tim. All to you. Lights, more lights !

First Lord. The best of happiness.

Honour and fortunes, keep with you. Lord Timon !

Tim. Ready for his friends.

[Exeunt all hut Apemantus and Timon,

Apem. What a coil 's here !

Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums I
I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums 240
That are given for 'em. Friendship 's full of dregs :
Methinks, false hearts should never have sound legs.
Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on court'sies.

T/m. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen,

riMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. i.

I would be good to thee.

4pem, No, I '11 nothing : for if I should be bribed too,
there would be none left to rail upon thee ; and
then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou givest
so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away
thyself in paper shortly : what needs these feasts, 250
pomps and vain-glories?

Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I
am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell ;
and come with better music. [Exit.

Apem. So : thou wilt not hear me now ; thou shalt
not then : I '11 lock thy heaven from thee.
O, that men's ears should be
To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! [Exit.

ACT SECOND.
Scene I.

/i Senator's house.

Enter a Senator, unth papers in his hand.

Sen. And late five thousand: to Varro and to Isidore
He owes nine thousand ; besides my former sum.
Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion
Of raging waste ? It cannot hold ; it will not.
If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog
And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold :
If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe
Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon ;
Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight
And able horses : no porter at his gate, 10

Act II. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

But rather one that smiles and still invites
All that pass by. It cannot hold ; no reason
Can found his state in safety. Caphis, ho !
Caphis, I say !

Enter Caphis.

Caph. Here, sir ; what is your pleasure ?

Sen. Get on your cloak, and haste you to Lord Timon ;
Importune him for my moneys ; be not ceased
With slight denial ; nor then silenced, when —
' Commend me to your master ' — and the cap
Plays in the right hand, thus : but tell him,
My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn 20

Out of mine own ; his days and times are past,
And my reliances on his fracted dates
Have smit my credit : I love and honour him,
But must not break my back to heal his*finger :
Immediate are my needs ; and my relief
Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words,
But find supply immediate. Get you gone:
Put on a most importunate aspect,
A visage of demand ; for, I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his own wing, 30

Lord Timon will be left a naked gull,
Which flashes now a phcenix. Get you gone.

Caph. I go, sir.

Sen. ' I go, sir ! ' Take the bonds along with you,
And have the dates in compt.

Caph. I will, sir.

Sen. Go. {Exeunt-

TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii.

Scene II.

A hall in Timon's house.

Enter Flavins, with many hills in his hand,

Flav, No care, no stop ! so senseless of expense,
That he will neither know how to maintain it,
Nor cease his flow of riot : takes no account
How things go from him ; nor resumes no care
Of what is to continue: never mind
Was to be so unwise, to be so kind.
What shall be done ? he will not hear till feel:
I must be round with him, now he comes from

hunting,
Fie, fie, fie, fie !

Enter Caphis, with the servants of Isidore and Varro,

Caph, Good even, Varro : what, you come for money ? lo

Var. Serv. Is 't not your business too ?
Caph, It is : and yours too, Isidore ?
Isid, Serv, It is so.
Caph, Would we were all discharged !

Var, Serv, I fear it.

Caph, Here comes the lord.

Enter • Timon, Alcibiades, Lords, and others.

Tim, So soon as dinner 's done, we '11 forth again.

My Alcibiades. With me ? what is your will ?
Caph. My lord, here is a note of certain dues.
Tim^ Dues ! Whence are you ?

Caph, Of Athens here, my lord. 20

Tim. Go to my steward.

Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Caph. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off
To the succession of new days this month :
My master is awaked by great occasion
To call upon his own, and humbly prays you
That with your other noble parts you '11 suit
In giving him his right.

Tim, Mine honest friend,

I prithee, but repair to me next morning.

Caph. Nay, good my lord, —

Tim. Contain thyself, good friend.

Var. Sen'. One Varro's servant, my good lord, — 30

Isid, Serv. From Isidore ; he humbly prays your speedy
payment.

Caph. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants, —

Var. Serv. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks
and past .

Isid. Serv. Your steward puts me off, my lord, and I
Am sent expressly to your lordship.

Tim. Give me breath.

I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on ;
I '11 wait upon you instantly. 40

[Exeunt Alcibiades, Lords, &c.
[To Flav.^ Come hither: pray you,
How goes the world, that I am thus encountered
With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds,
And the detention of long-since-due debts.
Against my honour?

Flav. Please you, gentlemen.

The time is unagreeable to this business:
Your importunacy cease till after dinner.
That I may make his lordship understand
Wherefore you are not paid.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii.

Tim. Do so, my friends. See them well entertain'd. [Exit,
Flav. Pray, draw near. [Exit. 50

Enter Apemantus and Fool.

Caph. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Ape-
mantus : let 's ha' some sport with 'em.

Var. Serv. Hang him, he '11 abuse us.

hid. Serv. A plague upon him, dog!

Var. Serv. How dost, fool?

Apem. Dost dialogue with thy shadow ?

Var. Serv. I speak not to thee.

Apem. No, 'tis to thyself. [ To the Fool] Come away.

Isid. Serv. There 's the fool hangs on your back

already. 60

Apem. No, thou stand'st single, thou 'rt not on him yet.

Caph. Where 's the fool now ?

Apem. He last asked the question. Poor rogues, and
usurers' men ! bawds between gold and want !

All Serv. What are we, Apemantus?

Apem. Asses.

All Serv. Why?

Apem. That you ask me what you are, and do not
know yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool.

Fool. How do you, gentlemen ? 70

All Serv. Gramercies, good fool: how does your
mistress ?

Fool. She 's e'en setting on water to scald such chick-
ens as you are. Would we could see you at
Corinth !

Apem. Good! gramercy.

Enter Page.
Fool. Look you, here comes my mistress' pa^e»

Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Page, [To the Fool] Why, how now, captain ! what
do you in this wise company? How dost thou,
Apemantus ? 80

Apem. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might
answer thee profitably.

Page. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscrip-
tion of these letters : I know not which is which.

Apem, Canst not read ?

Page, No.

Apem. There will little learning die then, that day
thou art hang'd. This is to Lord Timon; this
to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast bom a bastard,
and thou 'It die a bawd. 90

Page. Thou wast whelped a dog, and thou shalt
famish a dog's death. Answer not, I am gone.

[Exit,

Apem, E'en so thou outrun'st grace. Fool, I will go
with you to Lord Timon's.

Fool. Will you leave me there?

Apem. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three
usurers ?

AllServ. Ay; would they served us !

Apem, So would I, — as good a trick as ever hang-
man served thief. 100

Fool. Are you three usurers' men ?

All Serv. Ay, fool.

Fool. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant :
my mistress is one, and I am her fool. When
men come to borrow of your masters, they ap-
proach sadly and go away merry ; but they enter
my mistress' house merrily and go away sadly:
the reason of this?

4!^

TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii.

Var, Sen\ I could render one.

Apem, Do it then, that we may account thee a whore- no
master and a knave; which notwithstanding,
thou shalt be no less esteemed.

Var. Serv, What is a whoremaster, fool ?

Fool. A fool in good clothes, and something like
thee. 'Tis a spirit : sometime 't appears like a
lord; sometime like a lawyer; sometime like a
philosopher, with two stones moe than 's arti-
ficial one: he is very often like a knight; and,
generally, in all shapes that man goes up and
down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit 120
walks in.

Var. Serv. Thou art not altogether a fool.

Fool. Nor thou altogether a wise man : as much
foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st.

Apem. That answer might have become Apemantus.

All Serv. Aside, aside ; here comes Lord Timon.

Re-enter Timon and Flavins.

Apem. Come with me, fool, come.

Fool. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and
woman; sometime the philosopher.

[Exeunt Apemantus and Fool.

Flav. Pray you, walk near: I '11 speak with you anon. 130

{Exeunt Servants.

Tim. You make me marvel ; wherefore, ere this time,
Had you not fully laid my state before me,
That I might so have rated my expense
As I had leave of means?

Flceu. You would not hear me,

At many leisures I proposed.

Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Tim. Go to:

Perchance some single vantages you took,
When my indisposition put you back;
And that unaptness made your minister,
Thus to excuse yourself.

Flav. O my good lord,

At many times I brought in my accounts, 140

Laid them before you ; you would throw them off.
And say, you found them in mine honesty.
When for some trifling present you have bid me
Return so much, I have shook my head and wept ;
Yea, 'gainst the authority of manners pray'd you
To hold your hand more close : I did endure
Not seldom nor no slight checks, when I have
Prompted you in the ebb of your estate
And your great flow of debts. My loved lord.
Though you hear now, too late ! — ^yet now 's a
time — 150

The greatest of your having lacks a half
To pay your present debts.

Tim, Let all my land be sold.

Flav. 'Tis all engaged, some forfeited and gone.
And what remains will hardly stop the mouth
Of present dues : the future comes apace :
What shall defend the interim ? and at length
How goes our reckoning?

Tim, To Lacedsemon did my land extend.

Flav. O my good lord, the world is but a word :

Were it all yours to give it in a breath, 160

How quickly were it gone !

Tim, You tell me true.

J^Jaz^, Jf jou suspect my husbandry or falsehood,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii

Call me before the exactest auditors,

And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me,

When all our offices have been oppressed

With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept

With drunken spilth of wine, when every room

Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy,

I have retired me to a wasteful cock,

And set mine eyes at flow.

Tim. Prithee, no more. 170

Flav. Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord !
How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants
This night englutted! Who is not Timon's?
What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord

Timon's ?
Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon !
Ah, when the means are gone that buy this praise.
The breath is gone whereof this praise is made :
Feast-won, fast-lost ; one cloud of winter showers.
These flies are couch'd.

Tim, Come, sermon me no further :

No villanous bounty yet hath passed my heart ; 180
Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given.
Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience

lack.
To think I shall lack friends ? Secure thy heart ;
If I would broach the vessels of my love,
And try the argument of hearts by borrowing.
Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use
As I can bid thee speak.

Flav, Assurance bless your thoughts !

Tim. And in some sort these wants of mine are crown'd,
That I account them blessings ; for by these

Act II. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Shall I try friends : you shall perceive how you 190
Mistake my fortunes ; I am wealthy in my friends.
Within there! Flaminius! Servilius!

Enter Flaminius, Servilius, and other Servants.

Servants, My lord? my lord?

Tim. I will dispatch you severally: you to Lord
Lucius: to Lord LucuUus you: I hunted with
his honour to-day : you to Sempronius : commend
me to their loves ; and, I am proud, say, that
my occasions have found time to use 'em to-
ward a supply of money : let the request be 200
fifty talents.

Flam. As you have said, my lord.

Flav. [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? hum!

Tim. Go you, sir, to the senators —

Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have
Deserved this hearing — bid 'em send o' the instant
A thousand talents to me.

Flav. I have been bold.

For that I knew it the most general way,
To them to use your signet and your name.
But they do shake their heads, and I am here
No richer in return.

Tim. Is 't true? can 't be? 210

Flav. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice,
That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot
Do what they would; are sorry — you are honour-
able, —
But yet they could have wished — they know not —
Something hath been amiss — a noble nature
May catch a wrench — would all were well — 'tis pity : —

TIMON OF ATHENS Act II. Sc. ii.

And so, intending other serious matters,
After distasteful looks and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods
They froze me into silence;

Tim, You gods, reward them ! 220

Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary :
Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows ;
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind ;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth.
Is fashioned for the journey, dull and heavy.
[To a Serv.] Go to Ventidius. [To Flav.] Prithee,

be not sad ;
Thou art true and honest ; ingeniously I speak.
No blame belongs to thee. [To Serv.] Ventidius

lately
Buried his father, by whose death he 's stepped 230
Into a great estate : when he was poor,
Imprisoned, and in scarcity of friends,
I cleared him with five talents: greet him from

me;
Bid him suppose some good necessity
Touches his friend, which craves to be remember^
With those five talents. [Exit SerzK ] [ To Flav, ] That

had, give 't these fellows
To whom 'tis instant due. Ne'er speak or think
That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink.

Flav, I would I could not think it: that thought is

bounty's foe; 239

Being free itself, it thinks all others so. [Exeunt,

Act III. Sc. i. THE LIFE Of

ACT THIRD.
Scene I.

A room in Lucullus's house.

Flaminius waiting. Enter a Servant to him,

Serv, I have told my lord of you ; he is coming down
to you.

Flam, I thank you, sir.

Enter Lucullus.

Serv. Here 's my lord.

Lucul, [Aside] One of Lord Timon's men? a gift, I
warrant. Why, this hits right; I dreamt of a
silver basin and ewer to-night. Flaminius, hon-
est Flaminius; you are very respectively wel-
come, sir. Fill me some wine. [Exit Servant,]
And how does that honourable, complete, free- ic
hearted gentleman of Athens, thy very bountiful
good lord and master?

Flam, His health is well, sir.

Lucul. I am right glad that his health is well, sir:
and what hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty
Flaminius?

Flam. Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir ; which,
in my lord's behalf, I come to entreat your hon-
our to supply; who, having great and instant
occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to your 2
lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting your
present assistance therein.

Lucul. La, la, la, la! 'nothing doubting,' says he?
Alas, good lord! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. i.

would not keep so good a house. Many a
time and often I ha' dined with him, and told
him on 't ; and come again to supper to him, of
purpose to have him spend less; and yet he
would embrace no counsel, take no warning by
my coming. Every man has his fault, and hon- 30
esty is his : I ha' told him on 't, but I could
ne'er get him from 't.

Re-enter Servant, with wine.

Serv. Please your lordship, here is the wine.

Lucul. Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise.
Here 's to thee.

Flam, Your lordship speaks your pleasure.

LucuL I have observed thee always for a towardly
prompt spirit — give thee thy due — and one that
knows what belongs to reason ; and canst use
the time well, if the time use thee well: good 40
parts in thee. [To Serv.] Get you gone, sirrah.
[Exit Serv,] Draw nearer, honest Flaminius.
Thy lord 's a bountiful gentleman : but thou art
wise; and thou knowest well enough, although
thou comest to me, that this is no time to lend
money, especially upon bare friendship, without
security. Here 's three solidares for thee : good
boy, wink at me, and say thou saw'st me not.
Fare thee well.

Flam, Is 't possible that the world should so much differ.
And we alive that lived ? Fly, damned baseness, 51
To him that worships thee !

[Throzuing back the money.

Lucul. Ha ! now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy

master. [Exit.

Act III. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

Flam, May these add to the number that may scald thee !
Let molten coin be thy damnation,
Thou disease of a friend, and not himself !
Has friendship such a faint and milky heart.
It turns in less than two nights ? O you gods,
I feel my master's passion ! this slave, 60

Unto his honour, has my lord's meat in him :
Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment,
When he is tum'd to poison ?
O, may diseases only work upon 't !
And, when he 's sick to death, let not that part of

nature
Which my lord paid for, be of any power
To expel sickness, but prolong his hour. [Exit.

Scene II.

A public place.

Enter Lucius, with three Strangers.

Luc, Who, the Lord Timon? he is my very good
friend, and an honourable gentleman.

First Stran, AVe know him for no less, though we
are but strangers to him. But I can tell you
one thing, my lord, and which I hear from
common rumours: now Lord Timon's happy
hours are done and past, and his estate shrinks
from him.

Luc. Fie, no, do not believe it; he cannot want for

money. 10

Sec. Stran. But believe you this, my lord, that not
long ago one of his men was with the Lord
LucuUus to borrow so many talents ; nay, urged

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. ii.

extremely for 't, and showed what necessity be-
longed to 't, and yet was denied.

Luc. How !

Sec. Stran. I tell you, denied, my lord.

Luc, What a strange case was that! now, before
the gods, I am ashamed on 't. Denied that
honourable man ! there was very little honour 20
showed in 't. For my own part, I must needs
confess, I have received some small kindnesses
from him, as money, plate, jewels, and such-like
trifles, nothing comparing to his ; yet, had he
mistook him and sent to me, I should ne'er have
denied his occasion so many talents.

Enter Serviliiis,

Scr. See, by good hap, yonder 's my lord ; I have
sweat to see his honour. My honoured lord !

Luc. Servilius! you are kindly met, sir. Fare thee

well : commend me to thy honourable virtuous 30
lord, my very exquisite friend.

Ser. May it please your honour, my lord hath sent —

Luc. Ha! what has he sent? I am so much en-
deared to that lord ; he 's ever sending : how
shall I thank him, think'st thou ? And what has
he sent now?

Ser. Has only sent his present occasion now, my
lord ; requesting your lordship to supply his in-
stant use with so many talents.

Luc, I know his lordship is but merry with me ; 40

He cannot want fifty five hundred talents.

Scr. But in the mean time he wants less, my lord.
If his occasion were not virtuous,

Act III. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

I should not urge it half so faithfully.
Luc. Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius?
Ser, Upon my soul, 'tis true, sir.

Luc. What a wicked beast was I to disfumish myself
against such a good time, when I might ha'
shown myself honourable I how unluckily it hap-
pened, that I should purchase the day before for 50
a little part, and undo a great deal of honour!
Servilius, now, before the gods, I am not able
to do — the more beast, I say : — I was sending to
use Lord Timon myself, these gentlemen can
witness ; but I would not, for the wealth of Ath-
ens, I had done't now. Commend me bounti-
fully to his good lordship ; and I hope his hon-
our will conceive the fairest of me, because I
have nd power to be kind : and tell him this from
me, I count it one of my greatest afflictions,
say, that I cannot pleasure such an honourable 60
gentleman. Good Servilius, will you befriend me
so far as to use mine own words to him ?

Scr, Yes, sir, I shall.

Luc, I '11 look you out a good turn, Servilius.

[Exit Sen'ilius.
True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed ;
And he that 's once denied will hardly speed. [Exit.

First Stran, Do you observe this, Hostilius?

Sec. Stran. Ay, too well.

First Stran. Why, this is the world's soul; and just of
the same piece
Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can tell hiih 70

His friend that dips in the same dish? for, in
My knowing, Timon has been this lord's father,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iii.

And kept his credit with his purse;

Supported his estate; nay, Timon's money

Has paid his men their wages : he ne*er drinks,

But Timon's silver treads upon his lip ;

And yet — O, see the monstrousness of man

When he looks out in an ungrateful shape !^

He does deny him, in respect of his, .

What charitable men afford to beggars. 8a

Third Stran, Religion groans at it.

First Stran, For mine own part,

I never tasted Timon in my life,
Nor came any of his bounties over me.
To mark me for his friend; yet, I protest,
For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue.
And honourable carriage.
Had his necessity made use of me,
I would have put my wealth into donation.
And the best half should have returned to him.
So much I love his heart : but, I perceive, 90

Men must learn now with pity to dispense ;
For policy sits above conscience. [Exeunt.

Scene IIL

A room in Sempronius's house.

Enter Sempronius, and a Servant of Timon's,

Sent. Must he needs trouble me in 't, — hum ! — 'bove all
others ?
He might have tried Lord Lucius or LucuUus ;
And now Ventidius is wealthy too.
Whom he redeemed from prison : all these
Owe their estates unto him.

Act III. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Serv. My lord,

They have all been touched and found base metal, for
They have all denied him.

Sem. How ! have they denied him ?

Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him ?
And does he send to me? Three? hum!
It shows but little love or judgement in him : lo

Must I be his last refuge ? His friends, like physicians,
Thrive, give him over : must I take the cure upon me ?
Has much disgraced me in 't ; I 'm angry at him,
That might have known my place : I see no sense for't.
But his occasions might have woo'd me first ;
For, in my conscience, I was the first man
That e'er received gift from him :
And does he think so backwardly of me now,
That I '11 requite it last ? No :

So it may prove an argument of laughter 20

To the rest, and 'mongst lords I be thought a fool.
I 'd rather than the worth of thrice the sum,
Had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake ;
I 'd such a courage to do him good. But now return,
And with their faint reply this answer join ;
Who bates mine honour shall not know my coin.

Serv. Excellent ! Your lordship 's a goodly villain.
The devil knew not what he did when he made
man politic ; he crossed himself by 't : and I
cannot think but in the end the villanies of man 30
will set him clear. How fairly this lord strives
to appear foul! takes virtuous copies to be
wicked: like those that under hot ardent zeal
would set whole realms on fire:

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iv.

Of such a nature is his politic love.

This was my lord's best hope ; now all are fled,

Save only the gods : now his friends are dead,

Doors, that were ne'er acquainted with their wards

Many a bounteous year, must be employed

Now to guard sure their master. 40

And this is all a liberal course allows ;

Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house.

[Exit.

Scene IV.

A hall in Timon's house.

Enter two Servants of Varro, and the Servant of Lucius,
meeting Titus, Hortensius, and other Servants of
Timon's creditors, waiting his coming out.

First Var. Serv, Well met ; good morrow, Titus and
Hortensius.

Tit, The like to you, kind Varro.

Hor, Lucius ;

What, do we meet together?
Luc. Serv, Ay, and I think

One business does command us all ; for mine

Is money.
Tit, So is theirs and ours.

Enter Philotus,

Luc, Serv, And Sir Philotus too !

Phi, Good day at once.

Luc, Serv, Welcome, good brother.

What do you think the hour ?
Phi, Labouring for nine.

Act III. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF

Luc. Serv. So much ?

Phi, Is not my lord seen yet ?

Luc, Serv. Not yet.

Phi, I wonder on 't ; he was wont to shine at seven. lo

Luc, Serv. Ay, but the days are wax'd shorter with him :
You must consider that a prodigal course
Is like the sun*s ; but not, like his, recoverable.
I fear

'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse ;
That is, one may reach deep enough and yet
Find little.

Phi, I am of your fear for that.

Tit, I '11 show you how to observe a strange event.
Your lord sends now for money.

Hor, Most true, he does.

Tit, And he wears jewels now of Timon's gift, 20

For which I wait for money.

Hor. It is against my heart.

Luc, Serv, Mark, how strange it shows,

Timon in this should pay more than he owes :
And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels.
And send for money for 'em.

Hor, I 'm weary of this charge, the gods can witness :
I know my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth.
And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth.

First Var, Serv. Yes, mine 's three thousand crowns :
what 's yours ?

Luc, Serv, Five thousand mine. 30

First Var, Serv. 'Tis much deep : and it should seem by
the sum
Your master's confidence was above mine ;
FAst, surely, his had equalled.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iv.

Enter Flaminius.

Tit One of Lord Timon's men.

Luc. Serv. Flaminius ! Sir, a word : pray, is my

lord ready to come forth ?
Flam. No, indeed he is not.

Tit. We attend his lordship : pray, signify so much.
Flam. I need not tell him that ; he knows you are too

diligent. [Exit. 40

Enter Flavins in a cloak, muMed.

Luc. Serv. Ha! is not that his steward muffled so?

He goes away in a cloud : call him, call him.
Tit. Do you hear, sir ?
Sec. Var. Serv. By your leave, sir, —
Flav. What do ye ask of me, my friend ?
Tit. We wait for certain money here, sir.
Flav. Ay,

If money were as certain as your waiting,

*Twas sure enough.

Why then preferred you not your sums and bills.

When your false masters eat of my lord's meat ? 50

Then they could smile and fawn upon his debts,

And take down the interest in their gluttonous maws.

You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up ;

Let me pass quietly :

Believe 't, my lord and I have made an end ;

I have no more to reckon, he to spend.

Luc. Serv. Ay, but this answer will not serve.

Flav. If 'twill not serve, 'tis not so base as you ;

For you serve knaves. [Exit,

First Var. Serv. How ! what does his cashiered 60
worship mutter ?

Act III. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF

Sec, Var, Serv, No matter what ; he 's poor, and that 's
revenge enough. Who can speak broader than
he that has no house to put his head in? such
may rail against great buildings.

Enter Servilkis,

Tit, O, here 's Servilius ; now we shall know some
answer.

Ser, If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some
other hour, I should derive much from 't ; for,
take 't of my soul, my lord leans wondrously to 70
discontent: his comfortable temper has forsook
him ; he 's much out of health and keeps his
chamber.

Luc, Serv. Many do keep their chambers are not sick :
And if it be so far beyond his health,
Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts,
And make a clear way to the gods.

Ser. Good gods !

Tit, We cannot take this for answer, sir.

Flam, [Within] Servilius, help ! My lord! my lord!

Enter Timon, in a rage; Flaminius following,

Tim, What, are my doors opposed against my passage?

Have I been ever free, and must my house 81

Be my retentive enemy, my gaol ?

The place which I have feasted, does it now.

Like all mankind, show me an iron heart ?
Luc, Serv, Put in now, Titus.
Tit, My lord, here is my bill.
Luc. Serv. Here 's mine.
//or. And mine, my lord.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. iv.

Both Var, Serv, And ours, my lord.

Phi. All our bills. 90

Tim, Knock me down with 'em : cleave me to the girdle.

Luc. Scrv. Alas, my lord, —

Tim. Cut my heart in sums.

Tit. Mine, fifty talents.

Tim. Tell out my blood.

Luc. Serv. Five thousand crowns, my lord.

Tim. Five thousand drops pays that. What 's yours ? —
and yours ?

First Var. Sen'. My lord, —

Sec. Var. Serv. My lord, —

Tim. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you ! 100

[Exit.

Hor. Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their
caps at their money: these debts may well be
called desperate ones, for a madman owes 'em.

[Exeunt.

Re-enter Timon and Flavius.

Tim. They have e'en put my breath from me, the

slaves. Creditors? devils!
Flav. My dear lord, —
Tim. What if it should be so ?
Flav. My lord, —
Tim. I '11 have it so. My steward !

Flav. Here, my lord. 1 10

Tim. So fitly ? Go, bid all my friends again,

Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius : all :

I '11 once more feast the rascals.
Flav. O my lord,

You only speak from your distracted soul ;

There is not so much left, to furnish out

Act III. Sc. V. THE LIFE OF

A moderate table.

Tim. Be it not in thy care ; go,

I charge thee, invite them all : let in the tide
Of knaves once more ; my cook and I '11 provide.

[Exeunt.

Scene V.

The Senate-house.

The Senate sitting.

First Sen. My lord, you have my voice to it ; the fault 's
Bloody ; 'tis necessary he should die :
Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy.

Sec. Sen. Most true ; the law shall bruise him.

Enter Alcihiades, attended.

Alcih, Honour, health, and compassion to the senate !

First Sen. Now, captain ?

Alcih. I am an humble suitor to your virtues ;

For pity is the virtue of the law,

And none but tyrants use it cruelly.

It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy lo

Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood

Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth

To those that without heed do plunge into 't.

He is a man, setting his fate aside.

Of comely virtues :

Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice —

An honour in him which buys out his fault —

But with a noble fury and fair spirit,

Seeing his reputation touch 'd to death,

He did oppose his foe : 20

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. v.

And with such sober and unnoted passion
He did behave his anger, ere 'twas spent,
As if he had but proved an argument.

First Sen, You undergo too strict a paradox,
Striving to make an ugly deed look fair :
Your words have took such pains, as if they laboured
To bring manslaughter into form, and set quarrelling
Upon the head of valour ; which indeed
Is valour misbegot and came into the world
When sects and factions were newly bom : 30

He 's truly valiant that can wisely suffer
The worst that man can breathe, and make his wrongs
His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly,
And ne*er prefer his injuries to his heart,
To bring it into danger.
If wrongs be evils and enforce us kill.
What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill !

Alcib, My lord, —

First Sen, You cannot make gross sins look clear :

To revenge is no valour, but to bear.

Alcib. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me, 40

If I speak like a captain.

.Why do fond men expose themselves to battle,
And not endure all threats ? sleep upon 't
And let the foes quietly cut their throats,
Without repugnancy? If there be
Such valour in the bearing, what make we
Abroad? why then women are more valiant
That stay at home, if bearing carry it ;
And the ass more captain than the lion, the felon
Loaden with irons wiser than the judge, 50

If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords,

Act III. Sc. V. THE LIFE OF

As you are great, be pitifully good :

Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood ?

To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust;

But in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just.

To be in anger is impiety ;

But who is man that is not angry ?

Weigh but the crime with this.

Sec. Sen, You breathe in vain.

Alcib, In vain ! His service done

At Lacedaemon and Byzantium 60

Were a sufficient briber for his life.

First Sen, What *s that ?

Alcib. I say, my lords, has done fair service,

And slain in fight many of your enemies :
How full of valour did he bear himself
In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds I

Sec. Sen. He has made too much plenty with 'em ;
He 's a sworn rioter : he has a sin
That often drowns him and takes his valour prisoner :
If there were no foes, that were enough
To overcome him : in that beastly fury 70

He had been known to commit outrages
And cherish factions : 'tis inferred to us,
His days are foul and his drink dangerous.

First Sen. He dies.

Alcib. Hard fate ! he might have died in war

My lords, if not for any parts in him —
Though his right arm might purchase his own time
And be in debt to none — yet, more to move you,
Take my deserts to his and join 'em both :
And, for I know your reverend ages love
Security, I '11 pawn my victories, all 80

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. v.

My honours to you, upon his good returns.
If by this crime he owes the law his Hfe,
Why, let the war receive 't in valiant gore ;
For law is strict, and war is nothing more.

First Sen. We are for law : he dies ; urge it no more,
On height of our displeasure : friend or brother,
He forfeits his own blood that spills another.

Alcib. Must it be so? it must not be. My lords,
I do beseech you, know me.

Sec, Sen, How ! 90

Alcib, Call me to your remembrances.

Third Sen. What!

Alcib, I cannot think but your age has forgot me ;
It could not else be I should prove so base
To sue and be denied such common grace :
My wounds ache at you.

First Sen, Do you dare our anger ?

■ Tis in few words, but spacious in effect ;
We banish thee for ever.

Alcib, Banish me I

Banish your dotage ; banish usury,
That makes the senate ugly. 100

First Sen, If, after two days' shine, Athens contain thee,
Attend our weightier judgement. And, not to swell

our spirit,
He shall be executed presently. [Exeunt Senators,

Alcib, Now the gods keep you old enough, that you may live
Only in bone, that none may look on you !
I 'm worse than mad : I have kept back their foes.
While they have told their money and let out
Their coin upon large interest, I myself
Rich only in large hurts. All those for this ?

Act III. Sc. vi. THE LIFE OF

Is this the balsam that the usuring senate no

Pours into captains' wounds ? Banishment !
It comes not ill ; I hate not to be banish'd ;
It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury,
That I may strike at Athens. I '11 cheer up
My discontented troops, and lay for hearts.
'Tis honour with most lands to be at odds ;
Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. [Exit

Scene VI.

A hanque ting-room in Timon's house.

Music, Tables set out: Servants attending. Enter divers
Lords, Senators and others, at several doors.

First Lord. The good time of day to you, sir.

Sec. Lord. I also wish it to you. I think this honour-
able lord did but try us this other day.

First Lord. Upon that were my thoughts tiring when
we encountered : I hope it is not so low with him
as he made it seem in the trial of his several friends.

Sec. Lord. It should not be, by the persuasion of his
new feasting.

First Lord. I should think so: he hath sent me an

earnest inviting, which many my near occasions ic
did urge me to put off ; but he hath conjured me
beyond them, and I must needs appear.

Sec. Lord. In like manner was I in debt to my im-
portunate business, but he would not hear my
excuse. I am sorry, when he sent to borrow of
me, that my provision was out.

First Lord. I am sick of that grief too, as I under-
stand how all things go.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. vi.

Sec. Lord. Every man here 's so. What would he

have borrowed of you ? 20

First Lord. A thousand pieces.
Sec. Lord. A thousand pieces !
First Lord. What of you ?
Sec. Lord. He sent to me, sir, — Here he comes.

Enter Timon and Attendants.

Tim. With all my heart, gentlemen both : and how
fare you ?

First Lord. Ever at the best, hearing well of your

lordship. 30

Sec. Lord. The swallow follows not summer more
willing than we your lordship.

Tim. [Aside] Nor more willingly leaves winter ; such
summer-birds are men, — Gentlemen, our dinner
will not recompense this long stay : feast your ears
with the music awhile, if they will fare so harshly
o' the trumpet's sound ; we shall to 't presently.

First Lord. I hope it remains not unkindly with your
lordship, that I returned you an empty messenger.

Tim. O, sir, let it not trouble you.

Sec. Lord. My noble lord, —

Tim. Ay, my good friend, what cheer? 40

Sec. Lord. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick
of shame, that, when your lordship this other
day sent to me, I was so unfortunate a beggar.

Tim. Think not on 't, sir.

Sec. Lord. If you had sent but two hours before —

Tim. Let it not cumber your better remembrance.
[The banquet brought in.] Come, bring in all
together.

Act III. Sc. vi. THE LIFE OF

Sec, Lord, All covered dishes !

First Lord, Royal cheer, I warrant you. 50

Third Lord, Doubt not that, if money and the season
can yield it.

First Lord, How do you ? What 's the news ?
Third Lord, Alcibiades is banished : hear you of it ?
First and Sec, Lords. Alcibiades banished !
Third Lord, 'Tis so, be sure of it.
First Lord, How? how?
Sec, Lord, I pray you, upon what ?
Tim. My worthy friends, will you draw near ?
Third Lord, I '11 tell you more anon. Here 's a noble 60
feast toward.

Sec, Lord, This is the old man still.

Third Lord. Will 't hold? will 't hold?

Sec, Lord, It does : but time will — ^and so—

Third Lord, I do conceive.

Tifn, Each man to his stool, with that spur as he
would to the lip of his mistress : your diet shall
be in all places alike. Make not a city feast
of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree
upon the first place: sit, sit. The gods require 70
our thanks.

You great benefactors, sprinkle our society
with thankfulness. For your own gifts, make
yourselves praised : but reserve still to give, lest
your deities be despised. Lend to each man
enough, that one need not lend to another ; for,
were your godheads to borrow of men, men
would forsake the gods. Make the meat be be-
loved more than the man that gives it. Let no
assembly of twenty be without a score of villains : 80

TIMON OF ATHENS Act III. Sc. vi.

if there sit twelve women at the table, let a dozen
of them be — as they are. The rest of your fees,
O gods, — the senators of Athens, together with
the common lag of people, — what is amiss in
them, you gods, make suitable for destruction.
For these my present friends, as they are to me
nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing
are they welcome.
Uncover, dogs, and lap.

[ The dishes are uncovered and seen to

be full of warm water.

Some speak. What does his lordship mean ? 90

Some other. I know not.

Tim. May you a better feast never behold.

You knot of mouth-friends ! smoke and luke-warm.

water
Is your perfection. This is Timon's last ;
Who stuck and spangled you with flatteries.
Washes it oflf, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villany.

[ Throwing the water in their faces^
Live loathed, and long,
Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites,
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies,
Cap-and-knee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks ! loi
Of man and beast the infinite malady
Crust you quite o'er ! What, dost thou go ?
Soft ! take thy physic first — ^thou too — and thou : —
Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none.

[Throws the dishes at them, and drives them out.
What, all in motion ? Henceforth be no feast.
Whereat a villain 's not a welcome guest,

Act IV. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

Bum, house ! sink, Athens ! henceforth hated be
Of Timon man and all humanity ! [Exit

Re-enter the Lords, Senators, &c.

First Lord, How now, my lords ! i lo

Sec, Lord. Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury ?

Third Lord, Push ! did you see my cap ?

Fourth Lord. I have lost my gown.

First Lord. He 's but a mad lord, and nought but
humour sways him. He gave me a jewel th*
other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat.
Did you see my jewel ?

Third Lord. Did you see my cap ?

Sec. Lord. Here 'tis.

Fourth Lord. Here lies my gown. 120

First Lord. Let 's make no stay.

Sec. Lord. Lord Timon 's mad.

Third Lord. I feel 't upon my bones.

Fourth Lord. One day he gives us diamonds, next day
stones. [Exeunt.

ACT FOURTH.

Scene I.

Without the walls of Athens.

Enter Timon,

Tim. Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall,
That girdlest in those wolves, dive in the earth.
And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent!
Obedience fail in children ! Slaves and fools,
Pluck the grave wniv\d^A setv^.^^ ixom the bench,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. i.

And minister in their steads I To general filths
Convert o' the instant, green virginity !
Do 't in your parents' eyes ! Bankrupts, hold fast ;
Rather than render back, out with your knives,
And cut your trusters' throats! Bound servants,
steal ! lo

Large-handed robbers your grave masters are
And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed !
Thy mistress is o' the brothel. Son of sixteen,
Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire.
With it beat out his brains ! Piety and fear.
Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth.
Domestic awe, night-rest and neighbourhood.
Instruction, manners, mysteries and trades.
Degrees, observances, customs and laws.
Decline to your confounding contraries, 20

And let confusion live ! Plagues incident to men.
Your potent and infectious fevers heap
On Athens, ripe for stroke ! Thou cold sciatica,
Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt
As lamely as their manners ! Lust and liberty
Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth.
That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive.
And drown themselves in riot ! Itches, blains.
Sow all the Athenian bosoms, and their crop
Be general leprosy ! Breath infect breath, 30

That their society, as their friendship, may
Be merely poison ! Nothing I '11 bear from thee
But nakedness, thou detestable town !
Take thou that too, with multiplying bans !
Timon will to the woods, where he shall find
The unkindest beast more kinder than mankind.

Act IV. Sc. ii. THE LIFE OF

The gods confound — ^hear me, you good gods all ! —
The Athenians both within and out that wall !
And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow
To the whole race of mankind, high and low ! 40

Amen. [Exit,

Scene II.

Athens. Timon' s house.

Enter Flavins, zvith tzvo or three Servants.

First Serv. Hear you, master steward, where 's our master?
Are we undone? cast off? nothing remaining?

FJav. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you ?
Let me be recorded by the righteous gods,
I am as poor as you.

First Serv. Such a house broke !

So noble a master fall'n ! All gone ! and not
One friend to take his fortune by the arm.
And go along with him !

Sec. Serv. As we do turn our backs

From our companion thrown into his grave.
So his familiars to his buried fortunes 10

Slink all away : leave their false vows with him.
Like empty purses picked ; and his poor self,
A dedicated beggar to the air,
With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty.
Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows.

Enter other Servants.

Flav. All broken implements of a ruin'd house.
Third Serv, Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery ;
That see I by our faces ; we are fellows still,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. ii.

Serving alike in sorrow : leaked is our bark,
And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck, 20
Hearing the surges threat : we must all part
Into this sea of air.

Flav. Good fellows all.

The latest of my wealth I '11 share amongst you.

Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake

Let 's yet be fellows ; let 's shake our heads, and say.

As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortunes,

* We have seen better days.' Let each take some.

Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more :

Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor.

[Servants embrace, and part several ways.
O, the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us ! 30
W^ho would not wish to be from wealth exempt.
Since riches point to misery and contempt?
Who would be so mock'd with glory? or to live
But in a dream of friendship?
To have his pomp and all what state compounds
But only painted, like his vamish'd friends?
Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart.
Undone by goodness ! Strange, unusual blood
When man's worst sin is, he does too much good !
Who then dares to be half so kind again ? 40

For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men.
My dearest lord, blest to be most accursed,
Rich only to be wretched, thy great forttmes
Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord !
He 's flung in rage from this ingrateful seat
Of monstrous friends ; nor has he with him to
Supply his life, or that which can command it.
I 'II follow, and inquire him out :

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

I '11 ever serve his mind with my best will ;

Whilst I have gold, I '11 be his steward still. \_Exit.

Scene III.

Woods and cave, near the sea-shore.

Enter Timon, from the cave,

Tim. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth
Rotten humidity ; below thy sister's orb
Infect the air ! Twinn'd brothers of one womb.
Whose procreation, residence and birth
Scarce is dividant, touch them with several fortunes,
The greater scorns the lesser : not nature,
To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune
But by contempt of nature.
Raise me this beggar and deny 't that lord,
The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, lo

The beggar native honour.
It is the pasture lards the rother's sides,
The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who

dares.
In purity of manhood stand upright.
And say ' This man 's a flatterer? ' if one be,
So are they all ; for every grise of fortune
Is smooth'd by that below : the learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool : all is oblique ;
There 's nothing level in our cursed natures
But direct villany. Therefore be abhorr'd 20

All feasts, societies and throngs of men !
His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains :
Destruction fang mankind ! Earth, yield me roots !

[Digging.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. in.

Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate
With thy most operant poison! What is here?
Gold ? yellow, glittering, precious gold ? No, gods,
I am no idle votarist : roots, you clear heavens !
Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair,
Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant.
Ha, you gods! why this? what this, you gods?

Why, this 30

Will lug your priests and servants from your sides.
Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads :
This yellow slave

Will knit and break religions ; bless the accursed ;
Make the hoar leprosy adored ; place thieves.
And give them title, knee and approbation
With senators on the bench : this is it
That makes the wappen'd widow wed,again ;
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices 40
To the April day again. Come, damned earth,
Thou commc«i whore of mankind, that put'st odds
Among the rout of nations, I will make thee
Do thy right nature. [March afar off.] Ha! a

drum ? Thou 'rt quick,
But yet I '11 bury thee : thou 'It go, strong thief.
When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand :
Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [Keeping some gold.

Enter Alcibiades, with drum and fife, in warlike manner;

Phrynia and Timandra,

Alcib, What art thou there? speak.

Tim. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart.
For showing me again the eyes of maul

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Alcib, What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee, 50

That art thyself a man ?
Tim. I am misanthropes, and hate mankind.

For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog,

That I might love thee something.
Alcib. I know thee well;

But in thy fortunes am unleam'd and strange.

Tim. I know thee too ; and more than that I know thee
I not desire to know. Follow thy drum ;
With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules :
Religious canons, civil laws are cruel ; 59

Then what should war be ? This fell whore of thine
Hath in her more destruction than thy sword,
For all her cherubin look.

Phry. Thy lips rot off!

Tim. I will not kiss thee ; then the rot returns
To thine own lips again.

Alcib. How came the noble Timon to this change ?

Tim. As the moon does, by wanting light to give :
But then renew I could not, like the moon ;
There were no suns to borrow of.

Alcib. Noble Timon,

What friendship may I do thee?

Tim. None, but to

Maintain my opinion. 70

Alcib. What is it, Timon ?

Tim. Promise me friendship, but perform none: if
thou wilt not promise, the gods plague thee, for
thou art a man : if thou dost perform, confound
thee, for thou art a man !

Alcib. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries.

T/'m. Thou saw'st them when I had prosperity.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Alcib. I see them now ; then was a blessed time.

Tim. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots.

Timan. Is this the Athenian minion whom the world 80
Voiced so regardf ully ?

Tim. Art thou Timan dra ?

Timan. Yes.

Tim. Be a whore still : they love thee not that use thee ;

Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust.

Make use of thy salt hours : season the slaves

For tubs and baths ; bring down rose-cheeked youth

To the tub-fast and the diet.

Timan. Hang thee, monster !

Alcib. Pardon him, sweet Timandra, for his wits
Are drown'd and lost in his calamities.
I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, 90

The want whereof doth daily make revolt
In my penurious band : I have heard, and grieved.
How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth.
Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states.
But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them —

Tim. I prithee, beat thy drum, and get thee gone.

Alcib. I am thy friend and pity thee, dear Timon.

Tim. How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble ?

I had rather be alone.
Alcib. Why, fare thee well :

Here is some gold for thee.
Tim. Keep it, I cannot eat it.

Alcib. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap — loi

Tim. Warr'st thou 'gainst Athens?

Alcib. Ay, Timon, and have cause.

Tim. The gods confound them all in thy conquest,
And thee after, when thou hast conquered !

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Alcib. Why me, Timon ?

Tim. That by killing of villains

Thou wast born to conquer my country.
Put up thy gold : go on, — here 's gold, — go on ;
Be as a planetary plague, when Jove
Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison
In the sick air : let not thy sword skip one : i lo

Pity not honoured age for his white beard ;
He is an' usurer : strike me the counterfeit matron ;
It is her habit only that is honest.
Herself 's a bawd : let not the virgin's cheek
Make soft thy trenchant sword ; for those milk-paps.
That through the window-bars bore at men's eyes.
Are not within the leaf of pity writ,
But set them down horrible traitors: spare not the

babe
Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy ;
Think it a bastard whom the oracle 120

Hath doubtfully pronounced thy throat shall cut,
And mince it sans remorse : swear against objects ;
Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes,
Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes.
Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding.
Shall pierce a jot. There 's gold to pay thy soldiers :
Make large confusion ; and, thy fury spent,
Confounded be thyself ! Speak not, be gone.

Alcib. Hast thou gold yet ? I '11 take the gold thou givest me.
Not all thy counsel. 130

Tim, Dost thou or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee !

Phr, and Timan. Give us some gold, good Timon : hast
thou more?

Tim, Enough to make a whore forswear her trade,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts,
Your aprons mountant : you are not oathable ;
Although, I know, you '11 swear, terribly swear,
Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues.
The immortal gods that hear you ; spare your oaths,
I '11 trust to your conditions : be whores still ;
And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you,
Be strong in whore, allure.him, bum him up ; 141
Let your close fire predominate his smoke.
And be no turncoats : yet may your pains, six months.
Be quite contrary : and thatch your poor thin roofs
With burdens of the dead ; — some that were hang'd.
No matter: — wear them, betray with them: whore

still ;
Paint till a horse may mire upon your face :
A pox of wrinkles !

FJir, and Timan, Well, more gold : what then ?

Believe 't that we '11 do any thing for gold. 1 50

Tim. Consumptions sow

In hollow bones of man ; strike their sharp shins.

And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice.

That he may never more false title plead.

Nor sound his quillets shrilly : hoar the flamen.

That scolds against the quality of flesh

And not believes himself : down with the nose,

Down with it flat ; take the bridge quite away
Of him that, his particular to foresee.
Smells from the general weal: make curl'd-pate
ruffians bald ; 160

And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war
Derive some pain from you : plague all ;
That your activity may defeat and quell

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

The source of all erection. There 's more gold :
Do you damn others, and let this damn you.
And ditches grave you all !

Phr. and Timan, More counsel with more money, bounte-
ous Timon.

Tim. More whore, more mischief first ; I have given you
earnest.

Alcib. Strike up the drum towards Athens! Farewell,
Timon :
If I thrive well, I '11 visit thee again. 170

Tim. If I hope well, I '11 never see thee more.
Alcib. I never did thee harm.
Tim. Yes, thou spokest well of me.
Alcib. Call'st thou that harm ?

Tim. Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take
Thy beagles with thee.

Alcib. We but offend him. Strike !

[Drum beats. Exeunt Alcibiades,
Phrynia, and Timandra.
Tim. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness.
Should yet be hungry ! Common mother, thou,

[Digging.
Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast
Teems, and feeds all ; whose self-same mettle.
Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff 'd.
Engenders the black toad and adder blue, 181

The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm,
With all the abhorred births below crisp heaven
Whereon Hyperion's quickening fire doth shine ;
Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate,
From forth thy plenteous bosom one poor root !
Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Let it no more bring out ingrateful man !
Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves and bears ;
Teem with new monsters, whom thy upward face
Hath to the marbled mansion all above 191

Never presented ! — O, a root ! dear thanks ! —
Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas ;
Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips !

Enter Apemantus,

More man? plague, plague!

Apein. I was directed hither : men report

Thou dost affect my manners, and dost use them.

Tmi. 'Tis then because thou dost not keep a dog, 200
Whom I would imitate : consumption catch thee !

A pern. This is in thee a nature but infected ;
A poor unmanly melancholy sprung
From change of fortune. Why this spade ? this place ?
This slave-like habit? and these looks of care?
Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft.
Hug their diseased perfumes and have forgot
That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods
By putting on the cunning of a carper.
Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive 210

By that which hath undone thee : hinge thy knee.
And let his very breath whom thou 'It observe
Blow off thy cap ; praise his most vicious strain.
And call it excellent : thou wast told thus ;
Thou gavest thine ears like tapsters that bade welcome
To knaves and all approachers : 'tis most just
That thou turn rascal ; hadst thou wealth again,

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Rascals should have 't. Do not assume my likeness.

Tim, Were I like thee, I 'Id throw away myself.

Apem. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself, 220
A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st
That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain.
Will put thy shirt on warm ? will these moss'd trees.
That have outlived the eagle, page thy heels.
And skip when thou point'st out ? will the cold brook.
Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste.
To cure thy o*er-night's surfeit? Call the creatures
Whose naked natures live in all the spite
Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks.
To the conflicting elements exposed, 230

Answer mere nature ; bid them flatter thee ;
O, thou shalt find —

Tim, A fool of thee: depart.

Apem. I love thee better now than e'er I did.
Tim. I hate thee worse.
Apem. Why ?

Tim. Thou flatter'st misery.

Apem, I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff.

Tim. Why dost thou seek me out ?

Apem. To vex thee.

Tim. Always a villain's office or a fool's.
Dost please thyself in 't ?

Apem. Ay.

Tim. What ! a knave too ?

Apem. If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on

To castigate thy pride, 'twere well : but thou 240
Dost it enforcedly ; thou 'Idst courtier be again.
Were thou not beggar. Willing misery
Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before :

«6

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

The one is filling still, never complete,

The other at high wish: best state, contentless,

Hath a distracted and most wretched being,

Worse than the worst, content.

Thou shouldst desire to die, being miserable.

Tim. Not by his breath that is more miserable.

Thou art a slave, whom Fortune's tender arm 250
With favour never clasp'd, but bred a dog.
Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded
The sweet degrees that this brief world affords
To such as may the passive drugs of it
Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself
In general riot, melted down thy youth
In different beds of lust, and never learn'd
The icy precepts of respect, but follow' d
The sugar'd game before thee. But myself.
Who had the world as my confectionary, 260

The mouths, the tongues, the eyes and hearts of men
At duty, more than I could frame employment ;
That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves
Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush
Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare
For every storm that blows : I, to bear this.
That never knew but better, is some burden :
Thy nature did commence in sufferance, time
Hath made thee hard in 't. Why shouldst thou hate

men?
They never flatter'd thee : what hast thou given ?
If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, 271

Must be thy subject, who in spite put stuff
To some she beggar and compounded thee
Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone !

Act IV. Sc. Hi. THE LIFE OF

If thou hadst not been bom the worst of men,
Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer.

Apeni, Art thou proud yet?

Tim. Ay, that I am not thee.

Apem, I, that I was

No prodigal.

Tim, I, that I am one now :

Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee,

I 'Id give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. 280

That the whole life of Athens were in this !

Thus would I eat it. [Eating a root,

Apem. Here ; I will mend thy feast.

[Offering him a root,

Tim. First mend my company ; take away thyself.

Apem, So I shall mend mine own, by the lack of thine.

Tim. 'Tis not well mended so, it is but botched ;
If not, I .would it were.

Apem. What wouldst thou have to Athens ?

Tim. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt,
Tell them there I have gold ; look, so I have.

Apem. Here is no use for gold.

Tim. The best and truest; 290

For here it sleeps, and does no hired harm.

Apem. Where liest o' nights, Timon ?

Tim. Under that 's above me.

Where feed'st thou o' days, Apemantus ?
Apem. Where my stomach finds meat; or, rather,

where I eat it.
Tim. Would poison were obedient and knew my

mind!
Apem. Where wouldst thou send it?
Tim. To sauce thy dishes.

TIMON. OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Apem, The middle of humanity thou never knewest, 300
but the extremity of both ends : when thou wast
in thy gilt and thy perfume, they mocked thee
for too much curiosity ; in thy rags thou know'st
none, but art despised for the contrary. There 's
a medlar for thee ; eat it.

Tim, On what I hate I feed not.

Apem, Dost hate a medlar?

Tim, Ay, though it look like thee.

Apem. An thou hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou

shouldst have loved thyself better now. What 310
man didst thou ever know un thrift that was be-
loved after his means?

Tim, Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didst
thou ever know beloved?

Apem. Myself.

Tim. I understand thee; thou hadst some means to
keep a dog.

Apem, What things in the world canst thou nearest
compare to th}^ flatterers ?

Tim, Women nearest ; but men, rpen are the things 320
themselves. What wouldst thou do with the
world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy power?

Apem, Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men.

Tim. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion
of men, and remain a beast with the beasts?

Apem, Ay, Timon.

Tim, A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee
f attain to ! If thou wert the lion, the fox would
beguile thee: if thou wert the lamb, the fox
would eat thee: if thou wert the fox, the lion 330
would suspect thee, when peradventure thou

Act IV. Sc. Hi. THE LIFE OF

wert accused by the ass: if thou wert the ass,
thy dulness would torment thee, and still thou
livedst but as a breakfast to the wolf: if thou
wert the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee,
and oft thou shouldst hazard thy life for thy
dinner : wert thou the unicorn, pride and wrath
would confound thee, and make thine own self
the conquest of thy fury: wert thou a bear,
thou wouldst be killed by the horse: wert thou 340
a horse, thou wouldst be seized by the leopard :
wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the
lion, and the spots of thy kindred were jurors on
thy life: all thy safety were remotion, and thy
defence absence. What beast couldst thou be
that were not subject to a beast? and what a
beast art thou already, that seest not thy loss in
transformation !

A pern. If thou couldst please me with speaking to

me, thou mightst have hit upon it here : the com- 350
mon wealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

Tim. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art
out of the city?

Apem. Yonder comes a poet and a painter: the
plague of company light upon thee ! I will fear
to catch it, and give way : when I know not what
else to do, I '11 see thee again.

Tim, When there is nothing living but thee, thou
shalt be welcome. I had rather be a beggar's
dog than Apemantus. 360

Apem, Thou art the cap of all the fools alive.

Tim, Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon !

Apem, A plague on thee ! thou art too bad to curse.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Tim. All villains that do stand by thee are pure.
Apem. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st. ,
Tim, If I name thee.

I '11 beat thee ; but I should infect my hands.

Apem. I would my tongue could rot them off !

Tim. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog ! 370

Choler dost kill me that thou art alive ;
I swoon to see thee.

Apem. Would thou wouldst burst !

Tim. Away, thou tedious rogue ! I am sorry I shall

lose a stone by thee. [ Throws a stone at him,

Apem. Beast!

Tim. Slave!

Apem, Toad!

Tim. Rogue, rogue, rogue !

I am sick of this false world, and will love nought

But even the mere necessities upon 't. 380

Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave ;

Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat

Thy grave-stone daily : make thine epitaph,

That death in me at others' lives may laugh.

[To the gold] O thou sweet king-killer, and dear

divorce
'Twixt natural son and sire ! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed ! thou valiant Mars !
Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap ! thou visible god, 390

That solder'st close impossibilities.
And makest them kiss! that speak'st with every

tongue.
To every purpose ! O thou touch of hearts !

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Think thy slave man rebels ; and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!

Apem. Would 'twere so !

But not till I am dead. I '11 say thou hast, gold :

Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly.
Tim. Throng'd to!

Apem, Ay.

Tim. Thy back, I prithee.
Apem. Live, and love thy misery !

Tim. Long live so, and so die ! [Exit Apemantus.] I am
quit.
Moe things like men ? Eat, Timon, and abhor them.

Enter Banditti.

First Ban. Where should he have this gold ? It is
some poor fragment, some slender ort of his
remainder: the mere want of gold, and the
falling-from of his friends, drove him into this
melancholy.

Sec. Ban. It is noised he hath a mass of treasure.

Third Ban. Let us make the assay upon him : if he
care not for't, he will supply us easily; if he
covetously reserve it, how shall 's get it ? 410

Sec. Ban. True, for he bears it not about him ; 'tis hid.

First Ban. Is not this he ?

Banditti. Where?

Sec. Ban. 'Tis his description.

Third Ban. He ; I know him.

Banditti. Save thee, Timon.

Tim. Now, thieves ?

Banditti. Soldiers, not thieves.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Tiin. Both too ; and women's sons.

Banditti. We are not thieves, but men that much do want.

Tim. Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. 421
Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath

roots ;
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs ;
The oaks bear mast, the briers scarlet hips ;
The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
Lays her full mess before you. Want ! why want ?

First Ban, We cannot live on grass, on berries, water,
As beasts and birds and fishes.

Tim, Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds and fishes ;
You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con 430
That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not
In holier shapes : for there is boundless theft
In limited professions. Rascal thieves.
Here 's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o* the grape.
Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth.
And so 'scape hanging : trust not the physician ;
His antidotes are poison, and he slays
Moe than you rob : take wealth and lives together ;
Do villany, do, since you protest to do 't.
Like workmen. I '11 example you with thievery : 440
The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea : the moon 's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun :
The sea 's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears : the earth 's a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n
From general excrement : each thing 's a thief :
The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power
Have unchecked theft. Love not yourselves ; away,

Act IV. Sc. iii. THE LIFE OF

Rob one another. There 's more gold. Cut throats :
All that you meet are thieves : to Athens go, 451

Break open shops ; nothing can you steal,
But thieves do lose it : steal not less for this
I give you ; and gold confound you howsoe'er !
Amen.

Third Ban, Has almost charmed me from my profes-
sion by persuading me to it.

First Ban, 'Tis in the malice of mankind that he
thus advises us; not to have us thrive in our
mystery. 460

Sec. Ban, I '11 believe him as an enemy, and give over
my trade.

First Ban. Let us first see peace in Athens: there
is no time so miserable but a man may be true.

[Exeunt Banditti,

Enter Flavius.

Flav, O you gods !

Is yond despised and ruinous man my lord ?

Full of decay and failing ? O monument

And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd !

What an alteration of honour

Has desperate want made ! 470

What viler thing upon the earth than friends

Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends !

How rarely does it meet with this time's guise,

When man was wish'd to love his enemies !

Grant I may ever love, and rather woo

Those that would mischief me than those that do !

Has caught me in his eye : I will present

My honest grief unto him, and, as my lord.

Still serve him with my life. My dearest master !

TIMON OF ATHENS Act IV. Sc. iii.

Tim, Away ! what are thou ?

Flav. Have you forgot me, sir? 480

Tim, Why dost ask that ? I have forgot all men ;

Then, if thou grant'st thou 'rt a man, I have forgot
thee.

Flav, An honest poor servant of yours.

Tim, Then I know thee not :

I never had honest man about me, I ; all

I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains.

Flav. The gods are witness.

Ne'er did poor steward wear a truer grief
For his undone lord than mine eyes for you.

Tim, What, dost thou weep ? come nearer ; then I love thee.
Because thou art a woman, and disclaim'st 491

Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give
But thorough lust and laughter. Pity *s sleeping :
Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with
weeping !

Flav, I beg of you to know me, good my lord,

To accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts
To entertain me as your steward still.

Tim, Had I a steward.

So true, so just, and now so comfortable?

It almost turns my dangerous nature mild. 500

Let me behold thy face. Surely this man

Was bom of woman.

Forgive my general and exceptless rashness,

You perpetual-sober gods ! I do proclaim

One honest man — mistake me not — ^but one ;

No more, I pray, — and he 's a steward.

How fain would I have hated all mankind !

And thou redeem'st thyself : but all, save thee,

Act IV. Sc. Hi. THE LIFE OF

I fell with curses.

Methinks thou art more honest now than wise ; 510

For, by oppressing and betraying me,

Thou mightst have sooner got another service :

For many so arrive at second masters,

Upc«i their first lord's neck. But tell me true —

For I must ever doubt, though ne'er so sure —

Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous,

If not a usuring kindness and as rich men deal gifts,

Expecting in return twenty for one?

Flav, No, my most worthy master ; in whose breast

Doubt and suspect, alas, are placed too late : 520

You should have fear'd false times when you did feast :

Suspect still comes where an estate is least.

That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love,

Duty and zeal to your unmatched mind.

Care of your food and living; and, believe it.

My most honoured lord,

For any benefit that points to me,

Either in hope or present, I 'Id exchange

For this one wish, that you had power and wealth

To requite me by making rich yourself. 530

Tinu Look thee, 'tis so ! Thou singly honest man,
Here, take : the gods, out of my misery.
Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy ;
But thus conditioned : thou shalt build from men.
Hate all, curse all, show charity to none,
But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone
Ere thou relieve the beggar: give to dogs
What thou deniest to men ; let prisons swallow 'em,
Debts wither 'em to nothing: be men like blasted
woods,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i.

And may diseases lick up their false bloods ! 540

And so farewell, and thrive.

Flav. O, let me stay

And comfort you, my master.

Thn, If thou hatest curses

Stay not : fly, whilst thou art blest and free :
Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee.

[^Exeunt severally,

ACT FIFTH
Scene I.

The woods. Before Timon's cave.

Enter Poet and Painter ; Timon watching them

from his cave.

Pain. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far
where he abides.

Poet. What 's to be thought of him ? does the rumour
hold for true, that he 's so full of gold ?

Pain. Certain : Alcibiades reports it ; Phrynia and
Timandra had gold of him : he likewise enriched
poor straggling soldiers with great quantity:
'tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum.

Poet. Then this breaking of his has been but a try

for his friends. 10

Pain. Nothing else: you shall see him a palm in
Athens again, and flourish with the highest.
Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender our loves
to him in this supposed distress of his: it will
show honestly in us, and is very likely to load
our purposes with what they travail for, if it

Act V. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

be a just and true report that goes of his
having.

Poet. What have you now to present unto him ?

Pain, Nothing at this time but my visitation : only I 20
will promise him an excellent piece.

Poet, I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent
that 's coming toward him.

Pain. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o'
the time : it opens the eyes of expectation : per-
formance is ever the duller for his act ; and, but
in the plainer and simpler kind of people, the
deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise
is most courtly and fashionable : performance is
a kind of will or testament which argues a great 30
sickness in his judgement that makes it.

[Timon comes from his cave, behind,

Tim, [Aside] Excellent workman! thou canst not
paint a man so bad as is thyself.

Poet, I am thinking what I shall say I have provided
for him : it must be a personating of himself ; a
satire against the softness of prosperity, with a
discovery of the infinite flatteries that follow
youth and opulency.

Tim. [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a villain in

thine own work? wilt thou whip thine own 40
faults in other men? Do so, I have gold for
thee.

Poet, Nay, let 's seek him :

Then do we sin against our own estate,
When we may profit meet, and come too late.

Pain, True;

When the day serves, before black-comer'd night,

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. i.

Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light.
Come.
Tim. [Aside] I '11 meet you at the turn. What a god's gold,

That he is worshipped in a baser temple 51

Than where swine feed!

'Tis thou that rigg'st the bark and plough'st the foam,

Settlest admired reverence in a slave :

To thee be worship ! and thy saints for aye

Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey !

Fit I meet them. [Coming forward.

Poet, Hail, worthy Timon !

Pain. Our late noble master!

Tim, Have I once lived to see two honest men ?

Poet, Sir, 60

Having often of your open bounty tasted,
Hearing you were retired, your friends fallen off,
Whose thankless natures — O abhorred spirits ! —
Not all the whips of heaven are large enough —
What! to you,

Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence
To their whole being ! I am rapt, and cannot cover
The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude
With any size of words.

Tim, Let it go naked, men may see 't the better. 70

You that are honest, by being what you are,
Make them best seen and known.

Pain, He and myself

Have travaird in the great shower of your gifts,
And sweetlv felt it.

Tim. Ay, you are honest men.

Pain, We are hither come to offer you our service.

Tim, Most honest men ! Why, how shall I requite you ?

Act V. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

Can you eat roots, and drink cold water ? no.

Both, What we can do, we '11 do, to do you service.

Tim, Ye *re honest men : ye 've heard that I have gold ;
I am sure you have : speak truth ; ye 're honest men.

Fain, So it is said, my noble lord : but therefore 8i

Came not my friend nor I.

Tim, Good honest men ! Thou draw'st a counterfeit
Best in all Athens : thou 'rt indeed the best ;
Thou counterfeit'st most lively.

Pain, So, so, my lord.

Tim. E'en so, sir, as I say. And, for thy fiction.

Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth

That thou art even natural in thine art.

But, for all this, my honest-natured friends,

I must needs say you have a little fault : 90

Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you ; neither wish I

You take much pains to mend.

Both, Beseech your honour

To make it known to us.

Tim, You '11 take it ill.

Both. Most thankfully, my lord.
Tim. \N\\\ you, indeed ?

Both, Doubt it not, worthy lord.
Tim. There 's never a one of you but trusts a knave
That mightily deceives you.

Both, Do we, my lord ?

Tim, Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble,
Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him.
Keep in your bosom : yet remain assured 100

That he 's a made-up villain.

Pain. I know none such, my lord.

Poet. Nor I.

100

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. L

Tim. Look you, I love you well ; I '11 give you gold,
Rid me these villains from your companies :
Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught.
Confound them by some course, and come to me,
I '11 give you gold enough.

Both, Name them, my lord, let 's know them.

Tim, You that way, and you this, but two in company :
Each man apart, all single and alone, no

Yet an arch-villain keeps him company.
If, where'thou art, two villains shall not be.
Come not near him. If thou wouldst not reside
But where one villain is, then him abandon.
Hence, pack ! there'sgold ; you came for gold, ye slaves :
[ To Painter] You have work for me, there 's payment :

hence !
[To Poet] You are an alchemist, make gold of that :
Out, rascal dogs!

[Beats them out, and then retires into his cave.

Enter Flavius, and two Senators,

Flav, It is in vain that you would speak with Timon ;

For he is set so only to himself 120

That nothing but himself which looks like man
Is friendly with him.

First Sen, Bring us to his cave :

It is our part and promise to the Athenians
To speak with Timon.

Sec, Sen, At all times alike

Men are not still the same : 'twas time and griefs
That framed him thus : time, with his fairer hand.
Offering the fortunes of his former days.
The former man may make him. Bring us to him,

lOI

Act V. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

And chance it as it may.
Flav. Here is his cave.

Peace and content be here ! Lord Timon ! Timon !
Look out, and speak to friends: the Athenians 131
By two of their most reverend senate greet thee :
Speak to them, noble Timon.

Timon comes from his cave.

Tim, Thou sun, that comfort'st, bum! Speak, and be hang'd:
For each true word, a blister ! and each false
Be as a cauterizing to the root o' the tongue.
Consuming it with speaking !

First Sen. Worthy Timon, —

Tim. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon.

First Sen. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon.

Tim. I thank them, and would send them back the plague.
Could I but catch it for them.

First Sen. O, forget 141

What we are sorry for ourselves in thee.
The senators with one consent of love
Entreat thee back to Athens ; who have thought
On special dignities, which vacant lie
For thy best use and wearing.

Sec. Sen. They confess

Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross:

Which now the public body, which doth seldom

Play the recanter, feeling in itself

A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal 150

Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon ;

And send forth us, to make their sorrowed render,

Together with a recompense more fruitful

Than their offence can weigh down by the dram ;

102

TIMON QF ATHENS Act V, Sc, i.

Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth,
As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs,
And write in thee the figures of their love,
Ever to read them thine.

Tim. You witch me in it.

Surprise me to the very brink of tears :
Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, i6o

And I '11 beweep these comforts, worthy senators.

First Sen, Therefore, so please thee to return with us.
And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take
The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks,
Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name
Live with authority : so soon we shall drive back
Of Alcibiades the approaches wild ;
Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up
His country's peace.

Sec. Sen. And shakes his threatening sword

Against the walls of Athens.
First Sen. Therefore, Timon, — 170

Tim. Well, sir, I will; therefore, I will, sir; thus:

If Alcibiades kill my countrymen,

Let Alcibiades know this of Timon,

That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens

And take our goodly aged men by the beards.

Giving our holy virgins to the stain

Of contumelious, beastly, man-brain'd war ;

Then let him know, and tell him Timon speaks it.

In pity of our aged and our youth,

I cannot choose but tell him, that I care not, 180

And let him take 't at worst ; for their knives care not,
While you have throats to answer : for myself.
There 's not a whittle in the unruly camp,

103

ActV. Sc. i. THE LIFE OF

But I do prize it at my love before

The reverend^st throat in Athens. So I leave you

To the protection of the prosperous gods,

As thieves to keepers.

Flav. Stay not ; all 's in vain.

Tim, Why, I was writing of my epitaph ;

It will be seen to-morrow : my long sickness

Of health and living now begins to mend, 190

And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still ;

Be Alcibiades your plague, you his,

And last so long enough!

First Sen, We speak in vain.

Tim, But yet I love my country, and am not
One that rejoices in the common wreck.
As common bruit doth put it.

First Sen. That *s well spoke.

Tim, Commend me to my loving countrymen, —

First Sen, These words become your lips as they pass
thorough them.

Sec, Sen. And enter in our ears like great triumphers
In their applauding gates.

Tim, Commend me to them ; 200

And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs.
Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses.
Their pangs of love, with other incident throes
That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain
In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them :
I '11 teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath.

First Sen, I like this well ; he will return again.

Tim. I have a tree, which grows here in my close.
That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it : tell my friends, 210

104

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V, Sc. ii.

Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree

From high to low throughout, that whoso please

To stop affliction, let him take his haste.

Come hither ere my tree hath felt the axe.

And hang himself: I pray you, do my greeting.

Flaz\ Trouble him no further ; thus you still shall find him.

Tim. Come not to me again : but say to Athens,
Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
Who once a dav with his embossed froth 220

The turbulent surge shall cover : thither come.
And let my grave-stone be your oracle.
Lips, let sour words go by and language end :
What is amiss, plague and infection mend!
Graves only be men's works, and death their gain !
Sun, hide thy beams ! Timon hath done his reign.

[Retires to his cave.

First Sen, His discontents are unremoveably
Coupled to nature.

Sec. Sen, Our hope in him is dead : let us return,

And strain what other means is left unto us, 230
In our dear peril.

First Sen. It requires swift foot. [Exeunt,

Scene II.

Before the walls of Athens,

Enter two Senators and a Messenger.

First Sen. Thou hast painfully discovered : are his files
As full as thy report ?

Mess, I have spoke the least :

Besides, his expedition promises

105

Act V. Sc, iii. THE LIFE OF

Present approach.

Sec. Sen, We stand much hazard, if they bring not Timon.

Mess. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend ;

Whom, though in general part we were opposed.

Yet our old love made a particular force,

And made us speak like friends : this man was riding

From Alcibiades to Timon's cave, lo

With letters of entreaty, which imported

His fellowship i' the cause against your city.

In part for his sake moved.

First Sen. Here come our brothers.

Enter Senators from Timon.

Third Sen. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect.
The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring
Doth choke the air with dust : in, and prepare :
Ours is the fall, I fear, our foes the snare. [Exeunt.

Scene III.

The zvoods. Timon's cave, and a rude tomb seen.

Enter a Soldier, seeking Timon.

Sold. By all description this should be the place.

Who 's here ? speak, ho ! No answer ! What is this ?
Timon is dead, who hath outstretched his span :
Some beast read this ; there does not live a man.
Dead, sure ; and this his grave. What ^s on this tomb
I cannot read ; the character I '11 take with wax :
Our captain hath in every figure skill.
An aged interpreter, though young in days:
Before proud Athens he 's set down by this.
Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. [Exit. lo

106

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. iv.

Scene IV,

Before the walls of Athens.

Trumpets sound. Enter Alcihiades with his powers.

Alcih. Sound to this coward and lascivious town

Our terrible approach. [A parley sounded.

Enter Senators upon the walls.

Till now you have gone on and filled the time

With all licentious measure, making your wills

The scope of justice ; till now myself and such

As slept within the shadow of your power

Have wander'd with our traversed arms and breathed

Our sufferance vainly ; now the time is flush,

When crouching marrow in the bearer strong

Cries of itself ' No more ' : now breathless wrong lo

Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,

And pursy insolence shall break his wind

W^ith fear and horrid flight.

First Sen. Noble and young,

When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit,
Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear.
We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm.
To wipe out our ingratitude with loves
Above their quantity.

Sec. Sen. So did we woo

Transformed Timon to our city's love
By humble message and by promised means : 20

We were not all unkind, nor all deserve
The common stroke of war.

First Sen, These walls of ours

107

Act V. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF

Were not erected by their hands from whom
You have received your griefs : nor are they such
That these great towers, trophies and schools should fall
For private faults in them.

Sec. Sen. Nor are they living

Who were the motives that you first went out ;
Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess
Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord,
Into our city with thy banners spread : 30

By decimation and a tithed death —
If thy revenges hunger for that food
Which nature loathes — take thou the destined tenth.
And by the hazard of the spotted die
Let die the spotted.

First Sen. All have not offended ;

For those that were, it is not square to take,
On those that are, revenges : crimes, like lands,
Are not inherited. Then,* dear countryman,
Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage :
Spare thy Athenian cradle and those kin 40

W^hich, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall
With those that have offended : like a shepherd
Approach the fold and cull the infected forth,
But kill not all together.

Sec. Sen. What thou wilt,

Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile

Than hew to ^t with thy sword.
First Sen. Set but thy foot

Against our rampired gates, and they shall ope ;

So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before,

To say thou 'It enter friendly.
Sec. Sen. Throw thy glove.

TIMON OF ATHENS Act V. Sc. iv.

Or any token of thine honour else, 50

That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress
And not as our confusion, all thy powers
Shall make their harbour in our town, till we
Have seal'd thy full desire.

Alcih, Then there 's my glove ;

Descend, and open your uncharged ports :
Those enemies of Timon's, and mine own,
Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof,
Fall, and no more : and, to atone your fears
With my more noble meaning, not a man
Shall pass his quarter, or offend the stream 60

Of regular justice in your city's bounds.
But shall be rendered to your public laws
At heaviest answer.

Both. 'Tis most nobly spoken.

Alcih. Descend, and keep your words.

[The Senators descend j and open the gates.

Enter Soldier.

Sold. My noble general, Timon is dead;

Entombed upon the very hem o' the sea ;
And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which
With wax I brought away, whose soft impression
Interprets for my poor ignorance.

Alcib. [Reads\

* Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft :
Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked

caitiffs left! 71

Here lie I, Timon ; who, alive, all living men did hate :
Pass by and curse thy fill ; but pass and stay not here

thy gait.'

109

Act V. Sc. iv. THE LIFE OF

These well express in thee thy latter spirits :

Though thou abhorr*dst in us our human griefs,

Scorn*dst our brain's flow and those our droplets which

From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit

Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye

On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead

Is noble Timon : of whose memory 80

Hereafter more. Bring me into your city.

And I will use the olive with my sword.

Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each

Prescribe to other as each other's leech.

Let our drums strike. {Exeunt.

110

TIMON OF ATHENS

Glossary.

Abhor himself, make himself
abhorred (Hanmer, " make
himself abhorr'd ") ; I. i. 60.

Aches (dissyllabic) ; I. i. 247-

Advance, promote, raise to
honour; I. ii. 171.

Affect, like, desire; I. ii. 219.

Allow'd, trusted, invested -by
public aulhority (Warbur-
ton, "Hallow'd"); V. i. 165.
"al! good wishes to

; I,

23s.

Ample, amply; I. ii. 130.
Apperil, peril ; I. ii. 32,
Argument, contents; II. ii.
, subject, theme; III

20; III. V. 23-
Arms; " travers'd arms,"

folded arms ; according

others, with arms revei

V. iv. 7.
AriiUcial, belonging to art

tistic; '■ a. strife," the s

of art to outdo nature;

Si-
Atone, set at peace, put ir

cord; V. iv. 58.
Attend, await; III. v, 102.
Attends, awaits; I. ii. 154.

Bear, bear off; I. i.
Becks, nods; I. ii.
Beggar's dog; II.
illustration.)

Ltnryblack-latler

Behave, govern ; III. v, 22.

Beneath, lower, below ; I. i. 44.

Best, that which can be most
depended upon (S. Walker
conj. "last"); III. iii. 36.

Blaitis, botches ; IV. i. 28.

Blood, temper (Johnson conj.
" mood ") ; IV. ii. 38.

Bound, bank, boundary; I. i. 25.

Brain's How, tears (Hanmer,
"brine's How") ; V. iv. 76.

Breath, voice ; IV. iii. 249.

Breathe, ulter; III. v. 32.

Breathed, trained (" inured to
constant practice ; so trained
as not to be wearied ; To
breathe a horse is to exercise
him for the course " ; I. J. lO-

Glossary

THE LIFE OF

Bring, conduct; V. i. 122.
Bruise, crush, destroy ; III. v. 4.
Bruit, rumour; V. i. 196.
By, according to ; I. i. 171.
By mercy y (?) by your leave;
in. V. 55.

Candied, congealed; IV. iii.

226.
Cap, top, principal ; IV. iii. 361.
Carper, censurer; IV. iii. 209.
Caudle, serve as a caudle, re-
fresh; IV. iii. 226.
Ceased, stopped, silenced; II. i.

16.
Character, writing; V. iii. 6.
Charge, commission ; III. iv. 25.
Charitable; " ch. title," i.e. title

of endearment; I. ii. 90.
Cheerly, cheerfully; II. ii. 221.
Clear, pure; IV. iii. 2y.
Close, (?) closely; IV. iii. 391.
Cock; " wasteful c." {v. Note) ;

II. ii. 169.
Cog, deceive; V. i. 98.
Coil, ado, confusion ; I. ii. 238.
Cold-moving, distant; II. ii.

219. •

Comes oif well, i.e. is well

done; I. i. 29.
Comfortable, comforting ; IV.

iii. 499.
Composture, compost; IV. iii.

446.
Compt; " in c," i.e. for the

computation of the interest

due (Folios, "in. Come"',

H a n m e r, "in count *' ;

Keightley conj. "in mind") ;

II. i. 34.
Conceptions, fruitful; IV. iii.

Condition, (?) art (perhaps
"would be well express' d in
,our c." = " would find a stri-
king parallel in our state,"
Schmidt) ; I. i. 77.

Conditions, inclinations (per-
haps = " vocations '*) ; IV.
iii. 139.

Confectionary, store for sweets;

IV. iii. 260.

Confound, destroy IV. iii. 338.
Confounding, causing ruin ; IV.

i. 20.
—^ — , ruinous; IV. iii. 395.
Confusion, destruction ; IV. iii.

324.
, ruin; V. iv. 52.

Con thanks, be thankful ; IV.

iii. 430.
Continuate, continual; I. i. 11.
Contraries, contrarieties; IV. i.

20.
Convert, turn; IV. i. 7.
Corinth, a cant name for a

brothel ; II. ii. 73.
Couch'd; " are c.,'* lie low, have

disappeared; II. ii. 179.
Counterfeit, portrait, likeness;

V. i. 83.

Courage, disposition ; III. iii. 24.

Crown' d, glorified ; II. ii. 188.

Cunning, profession ; IV. iii.
209.

Curiosity, scrupulousness, fas-
tidiousness; IV. iii. 303.

Date-broke, date-broken (Fo-
lios, " debt, broken " ; Ma-
lone, "date-broken")', II. ii.

Dear, used intensively; IV. iii.
585.

112

TIMON OF ATHENS

Glossary

Dear, extreme, desperate; V. i.

231.
Dearest, utmost; I. i. 124.
Dedicated; " a d. beggar to the

air," i.e. a beggar dedicated

to the air; IV. ii. 13.
Deed of saying, doing what one

promises ( Pope reads

" deed ") ; V. i. 28.
Defiled, used with a play upon
pitch' d" (suggestive of
pitch that doth defile," cp.

I Henry IV. y II. iv. 415) ; I.

ii. 231.
Depart, part ; I. i. 253.
Depraved, slandered; I. ii. 139.
Depraves, slanders; I. ii. 139.
Deserts; "all d.," i.e. all kinds

of men ; I. i. 65.
Dich, a corruption of "do it,

due to the phrase " d' it ye

(the 3; palatalising the ; I-

ii. 72.
Discharged, paid; II. ii. 12.
Discovery, disclosing; V. i. 37.
Disfurnish, deprive of means;

III. ii. 49.

Dispraise, disparagement ; I. i.

165.
Dividant, divided, IV. iii. 5.
Doit, the smallest coin ; a trifle ;

I. i. 210.
Doubt, fear; I. ii. 153.
Doubtfully, ambiguously; IV.

iii. 121.
Draught, sink ; V. i. 105.

Earnest, earnest money, a part
paid beforehand as a pledge;

IV. iii. 47-

Embossed, tumid, swollen; V.
i. 220.

Entertain, use, employ; IV. iii.

497.

Ever, always (Rowe's emenda-
tion of Folios, "very"); 1.
ii. 29.

Exceptless, making no excep-
tion; IV. iii. 503.

Fail, offence (Capell's reading;
Folios, " fall " ; Hanmer,

"fault")', V. i. 151.
Fall; " at f .," at a low ebb ; II.

ii. 212.
Falling-front, falling off (Pope,

" falling off ") ; IV. iii. 405.
Fang, seize with teeth; IV. iii.

23.

Fate, evil destiny (Warburton

conj. "fault"); III. v. 14.
Feeders, parasites ; II. ii. 166.
Fees, property (Warburton

conj. "foes": Singer,

"lees"); III. vi. 82.
Fellows, companions; IV. ii.

18.
Fierce, excessive ; IV. ii. 30.
Files, ranks of soldiers ; V. ii. i.
Flamen, priest ; IV. iii. 155.
Flood, sea, ocean; V. i. 219.
Flush, in its full vigour ; V. iv. 8.
Fond, foolish ; I. ii. 64.
For, because; III. v. 80.

, of; V. i. II.

Forth on, onward ; I. i. 49.
Fracted, broken; II. i. 22.
Fractions, broken sentences ; II.

ii. 218.
Frame, plan ; IV. iii. 262.
Framed, moulded, shaped; V.

i. 126.
Frankly, 2lS frankly, as freely;

II. ii. 186.

113

Glossary

THE LIFE OF

Free, liberal ; II. ii. 240.
From, from among ; I. ii. 90.
, away from ; IV. iii. 534.

German, akin ; IV. iii. 342.

Girdlest in, dost surround (Fo-
lios, "girdles") ', IV. i. 2.

Give out, profess to be; I. i.
160.

Glass-faced, reflecting, like a
mirror, the looks of his pa-
tron; I. i. 58.

Good, real ; II. ii. 234.

Good even, the common form
of salutation after noon; II.
ii. 9.

Gorge; " cast the g. at," vomit ;
IV. iii. 40.

Gramercies, many thanks; II.
ii. 69.

Grave, bury; IV. iii. 166.

Griefs, grievances; V. iv. 14.

Grise, step; IV. iii. 16.

Grows, grows older (Theobald,
"goes") ; I. i. 3.

Gules, the heraldic term for
red; IV. iii. 59.

Gull, properly, an unfledged
nestling, here used with play
upon this and secondary
sense: — dupe; II. i. 31.

Gust, taste, relish ; III. v. 54.

Habit, exterior; IV. iii. 113.
Half-caps, caps half taken off,
slight salutations; II. ii. 219.
Hap, chance, luck; III. ii. 27.
Hard in, hardened to; IV. iii.

269.
Harness, armour ; I. ii. 52.
jF/aving, posstss\on^\ II. ii. 151.

Heart; " in h.," heartily ; i.e. I
drink to you with all my
heart, heartily; (Gould conj.
" your health ") ; I. ii. 53.

Heaven, salvation (here = good
advice; according to others,
"the pleasure of being flat-
tered") ; I. ii. 256.

Hew to, shape by cutting
(Daniel conj. "hew out")\
V. iv. 46.

Hinge, bend; IV. iii. 211.

His, its; I. i. 31.

Hoar, make rotten ; IV. iii. 155.

Hold, continue; II. i. 12.

Hold taking, bear handling; I.

ii. 153.
Honesty, liberality, bounty ; III.

i. 30.
Horrid, dreadful ; V. iv. 13.
Hoy-day, hey-day; I. ii. 131.
Humour, caprice (Folios i, 2,

"humors") ; III. vi. 115.
Hungerly, hungrily ; I. i. 252.
Husbandry, good management,

economy; II. ii. 162.
Hyperion, the God of the Sun ;

IV. iii. 184.

Idle, trifling; I. ii. 154.

, foolish ; IV. iii. 27.

Importunacy, importunity ; II.
ii. 42.

Incertain, uncertain ; IV. iii. 243.

Incontinent, inconstant, un-
chaste; IV. i. 3.

Infected, diseased (Rowe, "af-
fected") ; IV. iii. 202.

Inferred, alleged: III. v. y^.

Infinite, (?) numberless (Grant
White conj. "infectious") ;
III. vi. 102.

114

TIMON OF ATHENS

Glossary

Influence (used in the astrolog-
ical sense) ; V. i. 66.

Ingeniously, ingenuously,
frankly; II. ii. 228.

Ingrateful, ungrateful; IV. ii.

45.

Innocence (?) want of spirit
(perhaps used ironically) ; I.

i. 195.
Intending, pretending; II. ii.

217.
Ira furor hrevis est, anger is a

brief madness; 1. ii. 28.
It, its ; V. i. 151.

Keep his house, remain within
the house; III. iii. 42.

Lag, lowest class (Folios i, 2,
3» " l^gge " ; Anon. ap. Rann
con]," tag*')] III. vi. 84.

Late, lately; II. i. i.

Lay for, venture for, strive to
win; III. V. 115.

Leak'd, leaky ; IV. ii. 19.

Leech, physician; V. iv. 84.

Legs, used with play upon (i.)
limbs, (ii.) bowing; I. ii.
240.

Length; "at 1.," at last; II. ii.
156.

Levelled, aimed ; I. i. 47.

Liberty, licentiousness ; IV. i. 25.

Limited, circumscribed, con-
fined within bounds; IV. iii.

433.
Lined, stuffed ; IV. i. 14.

Lively, ^to the life ; V. i. 85.

Load en, loaded, laden ; III. v. 50.

Made-up, complete, perfect; V.
i. lOi.

Make, do; III. v. 46.
Many, many of; III. vi. 10.
Marrow, vigour; V. iv. 9.
Mean; " mean eyes," i.e. eyes

of inferiors (Theobald conj.

" men's ") ; I. i. 93.
Myeans, power, wealth ; V. iv. 20.
Meddler, used with quibble

upon " medlar " ; IV. iii. 309.
Medlar, a kind of fruit ; IV. iii.

305.
Meed, merit ; I. i. 276.

Men, human beings ; IV. iii. 534.

Merely, absolutely; IV. i. 32.

Mind, magnanimity; I. ii. 164.

Minion, favourite, darling; IV.
iii. 80.

Minute - jacks, time - servers
(with perhaps an allusion to
"Jacks-of-the-Clock," figures
that struck the bell in old
clocks) ; III. vi. loi.

Misanthropos, hater of man-
kind (Folio I, " misantro-
pos") ; IV. iii. 53.

Moe, more ; I. i. 41.

Monstrous, unnatural ; V. i. 91.

Moss'd, . overgrown with moss
(Folios I, 2, "moyst"', Fo-
lios 3, 4, " moist ") ; IV. iii.
223.

Motives, authors; V. iv. 29.

Multiplying, increasing; IV. i.

34-
Mysteries, trades, professions;

IV. i. 18.

Natural, used probably in
double sense (i.) genuine,
(ii.) a fool; V. i. 88.

Nature, necessities of nature;
IV. iii. 231.

115

Glossary

THE LIFE OF

Jack o- iAt clock.
From the specimen formerlT at St,
Diuutan's Church, Fleet Street, E.C.

Near, nearly; I. ii. 179.
Neighbour, neighbouring; IV.
iii. 94.

Objects, things presented to the

sight, everything that comes

in the way; IV, iii. 122.

Occasion, necessity; III. ii, 26,

Occasions, engagements ; III.

Offices, apartments where food
was prepared ; II. ii. 165,

Out, without, outside ; IV. i. 38,
Outgoes, exceeds ; I. i, 273.
Owed; " o, to you," held at
your service ; I. i. 151.

Pack, be off; V. i. 115.

Page, follow like a page ; IV.
iii, 224.

Painfully; "thou hast p. dis-
covered"; i.e. thou hast to
our distress discovered; V.

Paper, bonds, deeds (Warbur-
lon, " proper " ; Hanmer,
" perpeiuum " : Kinnear conj.
"person"; Becket conj,
"pauper") ; I. ii. 250.

Part, particular business (S.
Walker conj, "pad") ; V. i.
123-

Parlicularly ; " halts not p.,"

does not stop at particular

persons ; I. i. 46.
Parts, endowments, qualities ;

II, ii. 23.

. virtues ; III. v. 76.

Passes, surpasses (Jackson

conj. "surpasses") ; I. L 12.
Passion, violent e

Patchery; "botchery intended
to hide faults ; gross and
bungling hypocrisy " ; V. i. pg.

TIMON OF ATHENS

Glossary

Pawn, pledge; I. i. 147.

Perfect; " for ever p.," arrived
at the perfection of happi-
ness; L ii. 86.

Perfection, highest excellence;
( ? " perfect image ") ; III.
vi. 94.

Perfumes; " diseased p." =
" diseased perfumed mis-
tresses " ; IV. iii. 207.

Periods, puts an end to ; I. i. 99.

Personating, representing; V. i.

35.
Pill, pillage, plunder ; IV. 1. 12.

Plain-dealing, an allusion to the
proverb, " Plain-dealing is a
jewel, but they that use it
die beggars"; I. i. 209.

Ports, gates ; V. iv. 55.

Prefer, show, lay before; III.

V. 34.
Preferred, showed, presented ;

III. iv. 49.

Present; " p. slaves/* i.e. imme-
diate slaves (S. Walker conj.
"peasant slaves") ; I. i. 71.

Presentment ; " upon the heels
of my p., "as soon as my
book has been presented to
its patron"; I. i. 27.

Proof, test ; II. ii. 164.

, resisting power ; IV. iii.

124.

Properties, makes the property

of; I. i. 57-
Prosperous, favourable; V. i.

186.
Protest, vow ; IV. iii. 439.
Purposes, plans, intentions; V.

i. 17.
Pursy, "fat and short-
winded"; V. iv. 12.

Push, pshaw ! (Theobald,
" Psha " ; Hanmer, " Pish ") ;

III. vi. 112.

Quick, living; IV. iii. 44.
Quillets, nice, subtle distinc-
tions; IV. iii. 155.
Quit, rid of you ; IV. iii. 400.
Quittance, requital ; I. i. 279.

Rag, shabby, beggarly person;

IV. iii. 271.

Rampired, barricaded; V. iv.

47.
Rank'd, crowded ; I. i. 65.
Rapt, beside myself; V. i. 67.
Rarely, admirably, excellently;

IV. iii. 473.
Recoverable, possible to be

brought back to a better con-
dition ; III. iv. 13.

Regard fully, respectfully ; IV.
iii. 81.

Remembrance ; "better r.," i.e.
remembrance of better
things; III. vi. 46.

Remorse, pity ; IV. iii. 122.

Remotion, non-appearance, ab-
sence (Grant White conj.
"motion")', IV. iii. 344.

Render, statement, confession;

V. i. 152.

Render back, give back; IV. i.

9.
Rendered, surrendered, given

up ; V. iv. 62.
Repugnancy, resistance; III. v.

45.
Requite, repay ; IV. iii. 529.
Resort; "her r.," to visit her;

I. i. 127.

117

Glossary

THE LIFE OF

Respect; " in r. of his," in pro-
portion to what he possesses ;
III. ii. 8i.

Respectively, regardf uUy ; III.
i. 7.

Restraining, withholding; V. i.

151.
Resumes, assumes ; II. ii. 4.
Retentive, restraining; III. iv.

82.
Rother's, ox's (Singer's read-
ing, adopted by Collier; Fo-
lios, '* Brothers " ; Rowe,
he ggar*s"\ Warburton,
weather's" \ Farmer conj.
broader"', etc.) IV. iii.
12.
Rotten, corrupted; IV. iii. 2.
Round, plain, straight-forward ;
II. ii. 8.

Sacrificial, full of devotion as
to a Grod; I. i. 81.

Salt, wanton; IV. iii. 85.

Sans, without; IV. iii. 122.

Scope; "conceived to s.," i.e.
" imagined, appositely, to the
purpose " ; (Folios, " con-
ceyu'd, to scope"; Theobald,
" conceiv'd to th* scope ") ; I.
i. 72.

Secure thy heart, be reassured;
II. ii. 183.

Seen; "is my lord s. yet," i.e.
to be seen; III. iv. 9.

Semblable, like ; IV. iii. 22.

Sequence, succession ; " s. of
degree"; according to their
rank; V. i. 211.

Set; " s. so only to himself,"
i.e, " wrapt up in self-con-
templation " ; V, i. 120.

Set him clear, make him ap-
pear innocent; III. iii. 31.

Set me on, put me to; 1 1, ii.
164.

Shall 's, shall us = shall we ;
IV. iii. 410.

Sinner, a cause of sin ; I. ii. 58.

Smoothed, flattered ; IV. iii. 17.

So, if only ; V. iv. 48.

Solidares, small pieces of
money ; III. i. 46.

Something, somewhat; IV. iii.
55.

Sour, bitter (Rowe's emenda-
tion; Folios, "four") S.
Walker conj. "your ") ; V. i.
223.

Spilth, spilling; II. ii. 167.

Spirit, anger, wrath; III. v.
102.

Spital-house, hospital; IV. iii.

39.
Spotted die; V. iv. 34. (Cp.

illustration.)
Square, suitable; V. iv. 36.
Starve, paralyse (Folio i, 2,

" sterue ") ; I. i. 247.
States, estates; I, i. 67.

11%

TIMON OF ATHENS

Glossary

{a)

(^)

Prom specimens found (a) in the neigh-
bourhood of Marsielles and {d) at
Herculaneum respectively.

Still, always, continually; II. i.

II ; IV. iii. 522.
Stint, stop ; V. iv. 83.
Stout, strong; IV. iii. 32.
Strain, race; I. i. 249.

, quality; IV. iii. 213.

Strait, strict ; I. i. 96.
Strange, unacquainted; IV. iii.

56.

Strife, emulation ; I. i. 37.

Sufferance, suffering, misery ;
IV. iii. 268.

Suspect, suspicion; IV. iii. 520.

Swath; " first s.," earliest in-
fancy, swaddling clothes ; IV.
iii. 252.

Take, make; V. i. 213.

Tendance, persons attending,
waiting his pleasure; I. i. 80.

That, would that; IV. iii. 281.

Time's flies, " flies of a sea-
son " ; III. vi. 100.

Tiring, busy; III. vi. 4.

To; "call, to you," i.e. call on
you; I. ii. 221.

Told, counted; III. v. 107.

Touch, touchstone; IV. iii. 393.

Touch; "t. the estimate," pay
the price at which it is esti-
mated; I. i. 14.

Touched, tested with the touch-
stone; III. iii. 6.

Toward, at hand ; III. vi. 60.

Towardly, docile; III. i. 36.

Tract, track ; trace ; I. i. 50.

Traversed, crossed, folded, (?)
reversed; V. iv. 7.

True, honest; IV. iii. 464.

Trump, trumpet; I. ii. 119.

Try, trial; V. i. 10.

Unagreeable, unsuitable; II. ii.

41.
Unbolt, reveal, explain; I. i. 51.

Uncharged, unassailed; V. iv.

55.
Unclew, undo, ruin; I. i. 168.

Unctuous, oily; IV. iii. 195.

Under; " u. praise," by being
praised so much (not ** un-
der praise" as the jeweller
understands it) ; I. i. 165.

Under, under pretence of; III.

iii. 33-
Undergo, undertake; III. v. 24.
Unmatched, matchless; IV. iii.

524.

Unnoted, (?) imperceptible
(perhaps =: undemonstra-
tive) ; III. V. 21.

Unpeac cable, quarrelsome
(Collier MS., " unappeas*
able ") ; I. i. 269.

Unremoveably, fixedly; V. i.
227.

Untirable, untiring, indefatiga-
ble; I. i. II.

Use, customary; "I. i. 279.

Uses, necessities ; II. i. 20.

119

Glossary

Vantages, opportunities; II. H
136.

Virtuous, " caused by his vir-
tue " ; (?) strong, forcible

THE LIFE or

Visitations, visits ; I. ii. 223.
Voiced, proclaimed; IV. iii. 81.
Void, emit; I. iL 137.
Votarist, votary; IV. iii. 27.

Wafts, beckons; I.
Wappen'd, beaten,

stale; IV. iii. 38.
Wards, bars, bolts; III. iii. 38. .
Warm, heated to a moderate

degree; IV. iii. 223.
Whittle, small clasp-knife; V.

i. 183.
Willing, willingly; III. vi. 32.
Window-bars, cross-bar lacing

of tbe bodice; IV. iii, 116.

(Cp. i I lust ration.)
Witch, bewitch ; V. i. 158.
Without, outside; V. iv. 39.
Wreakful, revengeful; IV. iii.

229.

Enler AfematUus and Fool (Stage Directions,

Prom a small bronie statuette of Roman worl[man3hi

when whale, piobabty ^spUie&wnii«c<iiu':ee

TIMON OF ATHENS

Critical Notes.

BY ISRAEL GOLLANCZ.

I. i. 21. 'gum, which oozes' \ Johnson's reading; Folios read
'gown, which uses''. Pope, * gum which issues.'

I. i.. 24-25. ' Mes Each bound it chafes'; Folios, 'chases';
Becket conj. 'Hies, Eche (bound) it chafes'; Schmidt, 'chafes
with.'

I. i. 30-31. 'grace Speaks his own standing'; Johnson conj.
' standing . . . graces or grace Speaks understanding ' ; Mason
conj. 'Grace speaks its own standing'; Jackson conj. 'grace
Speaks! 'tis on standing'; Orger conj. 'grace , . . seeming.'

I. i. 40. ' happy man ' ; Theobald's emendation of Folios, ' happy

men*

I. i. 47. 'sea of wax' ; Bailey conj. 'sweep of taxing'; Collier
MS., 'sea of verse' etc.; but there is evidently a reference to
writing-tablets covered with wax.

I. i. 87. ' slip ' ; Folios, ' sit ' ; Delius conj. ' sink.'

I. i. 129. The line is supposed by some to be corrupt, and many
emendations have been proposed, but Coleridge's interpretation
commends itself : — " The meaning of the first line the poet himself
explains, or rather unfolds, in the second. * The man is honest ! *
— True ; and for that very cause, and with no additional or
extrinsic motive, he will be so. No man can be justly called
honest, who is not so for honesty's sake, itself including its
reward."

I. i. 233* ' That I had no angry wit to be a lord ' ; Blackstone
conj. 'Angry that I had no wit, — to be a lord'; Malone conj.
' That I had no angry wit. — To be a lord! ' ; Anon, conj., ' That I
had no ampler wit than be a lord ' ; Warburton, ' That I had so
hungry a wit to be a lord'; Heath conj. ' That . . . so wrong' d
my wit to be a lord' etc., etc.

I. ii. 45. Alluding to the then custom of each guest bringing his
own knife to a feast.

I, ii. 71. 'sin'; Farmer conj. 'sing'; Singer conj. 'dine'; Kin-
near conj. 'surfeit,'

121

Notes THE LIFE OF

I. ii. 122-127. The arrangement of these lines was first suggested
by Rann, and followed by Steevens in his edition of 1793.

I. ii. lig. ' Music, make their welcome ' ; Pope reads ' Let mustck
make their welcome'; Capell, ' Muiick, make known their welcome.'

I. ii. Direc. 'A mask of ladies as Amazons.' (Cp. illustration.)

From a plate illustiatiaB the Imperial Feali

II. i. 10. 'And able horses'; so Folios 1, 2; Folios 3, 4, 'An able
horse ' ; Theobald, ' ten able horse ' ; Jackson eoiij. 'Ay, able
horses' ; Collier MS., 'o stable o' horses' ; Singer eonj, ' Two able

II. i. 13. 'found his state in safety'; Hanmer's reading; Folios,
'sound . . .'; Capell, 'found . . . on safely'; Capell conj.
' Und . . . in safety.'

II. ii. 6. 'Was to be'; Heath conj. 'Was made to be'; Long
MS., 'Was'; Mason conj. ' IVas formed'; Singer MS., ' IVas
truly ' ; Collier MS., ' Was surely.'

II. ii. 75. 'mistress' (so line 107).

II. ii. 140. 'loved lord'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'dear lov'd lord'; S.
Walker conj, ' belov'd.'

II. ii, 150, Folios read 'Though you heare now (too late) yet
nowes a time. The ' ; Hanmer, ' Though . . . yet now 's too late
a time '; Collier MS., ' Though . . . yet now 's a time too late.'

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

II. ii. 169. ' wasteful cock ' ; Pope reads ' lonely room ' ; Collier
MS., ' wasteful nook ' ; Jackson conj. ' wakeful cock ' ; Jervis conj.
'wakeful couch' \ Keightley, 'wasteful cock-loft' \ Daniel conj.
'wakeful cot'; Jackson's conjecture seems best, 'wakeful cock,'
i.e. * cock-loft,' unless ' cock ' = wine-tap.

III. i. 50. 'And we alive that lived ' ; i.e. in so short a time.
III. i. 55. 'Let molten coin he thy damnation' \ cp. the old bal-
lad, " The Dead Man's Song " :—

"And ladles full of melted gold
Were poured down their throats."

III. i. 59-60. ' slave. Unto his honour,' Steevens' reading ; Folios,
'Slave unto his honour'; Fope, ' slave Unto this hour'; Collier
MS., 'slave unto his humour' ; Staunton, 'slave Unto dishonour';
but the words are probably spoken ironically.

III. ii. 13. ' so many ' ; changed by Theobald to ' fifty ' ; so, too,
in line 41 ; but the figures are very doubtful, and ' Hfty-iive hun-
dred talents,' in line 43, is obviously a mere exaggeration.

III. ii. 25. ' mistook him' etc., i.e. * made the mistake and applied
to me ' ; Hanmer, * o'erlooked ' ; Warburton, ' mistook' d ' ; Johnson
conj. ' not mistook,*

III. ii. 50. ' for a little part ' ; Theobald, ' for a little dirt' ; Han-
mer, 'a little dirt'; Heath conj. 'for a little profit' ; Johnson conj.
' for a little park'; Mason conj. 'for a little port' ; Jackson conj.
'for a little part'; Bailey conj. 'for a little sport'; Kinnear conj.
' for a little pomp.' Steevens explains the passage thus : — " By
purchasing what brought me little honour, I have lost the more
honourable opportunity of supplying the wants of my friend."

III. ii. 70. 'spirit,' Theobald's correction of Folios, 'sport';
Collier MS., 'port.'

III. ii. 79. 'in respect of his'; Staunton conj. 'this.*

III. iii. 12. ' Thrive, give him over ' ; so Folio i ; Folios 2, 3, 4,
' That thriv'd, give him over ' ; Pope, ' Three give him overt ' ;
Hanmer, ' Tried give him over ' ; Theobald, ' Thriv'd, give him
over?'; Tyrwhitt conj. ' Shriv'd give him over:'; Johnson conj.
' Thrice give him over,' etc.

III. iii. 14. 'sense'; Collier conj. "scuse.'

III. iv. 112. ' Sempronius: all:', so Folios 3, 4; Folio i, ' Sem-
pronius Vllorxa: All'; Folio 2, ' Semprovius: All'; Malone,
'Sempronius: Ullorxa, all' ; Grant White suggested that 'Vllorxa*
was a misprint for ' Ventidius.*

ill. v. 22. ' behave his anger, ere 'twas st)cnt* \ YcJv\o^/ \)c\\.oov.e

123

Notes THE LIFE OF

his . . /; Johnson conj. * behold his adversary shent*; Steevens
conj. ' behave, ere was his anger spent ' ; Becket conj. ' behave; his
anger was, 'ere spent ' ; Hanmer, ' behave in 's . . / ; Malone
conj. ' behave his . . .' ; Collier MS., ' reprove his . . ./ etc.

III. V. 63. ' I say, my lords, has ' ; Pope reads ' I say my lords
Was' ', Folio I, ' Why say my Lords ha's' ; Folios 2, 3, ' Why I say
my lords ha's'; Folio 4, 'Why, I say my Lords Was'; Capell,
' Why, I say, my lords, he has ' ; Dyce, ' Why, I say, my lords,
has'; Globe edd., '/ say, my lords, he has.'

III. V. 102. 'And, not to swell our spirit,' i.e. * not to swell our
spirit with anger, not to become exasperated ' ; Theobald, 'And
note, to swell your spirit' ; Capell, 'And, not to swell your spirit';
Singer, ' quell ' ; Kinnear, ' quail.'

III. V. 105. ' Only in bone,' i.e. ' as a mere skeleton ' ; Staunton
conj. 'Only at home,' or 'Only in doors'; Ingleby conj. 'only in
bed'; Hudson conj. 'only alone.'

III. V. 116. 'most lands'; Warburton, 'most hands'; Malone
conj. ' most lords'; Mason conj. ' my stains' ; Becket conj. 'most
brands'; Jackson conj. 'most bands.'

III. vi. 37. 'harshly 0' the trumpet's' ; Rowe, 'harshly as 0' the
Trumpets'; Steevens (1793), 'harshly on the trumpet's; Grant
White conj. 'harshly. O, the trumpets,' etc.

III. vi. 95. 'you with flatteries'; so Folios; Warburton, 'with
your flatteries ' ; Keightley, ' by you with flatteries ' ; Folio 2 reads
' flatreries ' ; S. Walker conj. 'flattery.'

III. vi. 115, 116. 'He gave me a jewel
tW other day, and now he has beat it out
of my hat.' The annexed example of a
hat with a jewel fashioned like a bird
holding in its claws a pearl, is copied
from the rare portrait of Thomas Lant,

1587.
IV. i. 21. 'let,' Hanmer's emendation

"i^lu^SffK ^J^M^^ of Folios, ' yet:

IV. ii. 35. ' what state compounds ' ; S.
Walker conj. 'state comprehends' ;
Grant White conj. 'that state com-
pounds'; Watkiss Lloyd conj. ' what e'er state comprehends.'

IV. iii. 9. ' deny 't ' ; Warburton, ' denude ' ; Hanmer, ' degrade ' ;
Heath conj. 'deprive'; Steevens conj. 'devest'; Collier MS.,
' decline ' ; etc. ; the indefinite ' it ' refers to the implied noun in
' raise,' i.e. * give elevation to.'

124

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

IV. iii. 12. 'pasture lards the rother's sides'; ' rother,* Singer's
emendations for Folios 'brothers/ Folio i, 'Pastour'; Folios
2, 3, 4, 'pastor'; Farmer and Steevens conj. ' pasterer': 'lards';
Rowe's reading, Folio i, 'Lards'; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Lords.'

IV. iii. 18. 'all is oblique'; Pope's emendation; Folio i, 'All's
obliquie'; Folios 2, 3, 'Alls obliquy'; Folio 4, 'All's obliquy';
Rowe, 'all's obloquy'; Lettsom conj. 'all, all's oblique.'

IV. iii. 38. ' wappen'd ' ; so Folios i, 2 ; Folios 3, 4, ' wapen'd * ;
Warburton, 'waped'; Johnson conj. 'wained'; Malone conj.
' wapper'd' ; Anon. conj. ' Wapping' ; Steevens conj. 'weeping' ;
Seymour conj. 'vapid'; Staunton conj. ' woe-pin'd' ; Fleay, 'wop-
eyed'; i.e. having waterish eyes (vide Glossary).

IV. iii. 106. ' conquer my country ' ; Kinnear conj. ' confound my
countrymen' ; Hanmer, ' make conquest of my country'; Capell,
'conquer thy own country'; S. Walker conj. 'scourge thy coun-
try ' ; Hudson, ' scourge my country.'

IV. iii. 116. 'window-bars' ; Johnson conj.; Folios, 'window
Barn ' ; Pope, ' window-barn ' ; Warburton, ' zvindow-lawn ' ;
Tyrwhitt conj. ' widozvs's barb.'

IV. iii. 153. 'spurring'; Hanmer, 'sparring' ; Long MS.,
'spurning'; Seymour conj. 'springing' ; there is no need to
emend the text.

IV. iii. 215. 'bade'; Folio i, 'bad'; Folios, 2, 3, 4, 'bid.'

IV. iii. 225. 'when'; S. Walker conj. 'where.'

IV. iii. 243. ' Outlives inccrtatn ' ; Rowe's emendation ; Folio
I reads 'Out-lives: incertaine' \ Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Out-lives: in cer-
taine ' ; Hanmer, ' Out-strips incertain ' ; Capell, ' Out-vies un-
certain.'

IV. iii. 254. ' drugs ' ; Folios i, 2, ' drugges ' ; Mason conj.
'drudges'; Collier MS., 'dugs'; Capell conj. MS. 'dregs';
' drugs ' =. ' drudges.'

IV. iii. 283. ' my ' ; Rowe's correction of Folios, ' thy.'

IV. iii. 312. 'after his means,' i.e. 'after his means were gone.'

IV. iii. 421. 'meat'; Theobald, 'meet' {i.e. * what you ought
to be ') ; Hanmer, ' men ' ; Steevens conj. ' me,' etc.

IV. iii. 422-426. ' Behold, the earth hath roots' etc. ; cp. Hall's
Satires, II L i (pub. 1598) : —

'' Time was that, whiles the autumn full did last.
Our hungry sires gap'd for the falling mast," etc.

IV. iii. 439. 'villany'; Rowe's correction of Folios i, 2, ' vil-
laine.'

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Notes THE LIFE OF

IV. iii. 445. ' moon ' ; Theobald, ' mounds ' ; Capell, ' earth * ;
Toilet conj. ' main.'

IV. iii. 500. 'dangerous nature mild'; Thirlby conj.; Folios,
'wild'; Becket conj. 'nature dangerous-wild' ; Jackson conj.
' dolorous nature wild,'

V. i. 47. * black-corner' d,' i.e. ' hiding things in dark corners ' ;
Hanmer, ' black-corneted' ; Warburton conj. ' black-cornette' ;
Farmer conj. MS. ' black-coroned' ; Mason conj. 'black-
crowned'; Jackson conj. 'dark-horned'; Singer conj. ' black -
curtain'd' etc.

V. i. 1 16. ' You have work ' ; so Folios ; Hanmer, ' You have
work'd ' ; Malone, ' You have done work ' ; Steevens conj. ' You 've
work'd.'

V. i. 136. 'as a cauterizing' ; Rowe's emendation; Folio i,
' as a Cantherising ' ; Folios 2, 3, ^, ' as a Catherising ' ; Pope,
' cauterising ' ; Capell, ' cancerising.'

V. i. 147. ' general, gross: ' ; Pope's emendation of Folios,
'generall grosse:'; S. Walker conj., adopted by Dyce, 'general-
gross.'

V. i. 213. 'haste'; Pope, 'taste'; Warburton conj. MS.
' tatch ' ; Collier MS. ' halter.'

V. 11. 7. ' whom,' instead of ' who,' owing to confusion of con-
structions ; Pope, ' Who ' ; Hanmer, 'And' ; Singer, ' When,' etc.

V. ii. 8. ' made a particular force * ; Hanmer reads ' had . . .
force'; Staunton conj. 'took . . . truce'; Bailey conj. 'had
. . . force with,' etc.

V. iii. 3-4. These words are in all probability the reflection of
the soldier; this view is certainly more acceptable than to be-
lieve them to be an inscription placed by Timon somewhere near
the tomb. Nor is it necessary, with Warburton, to change ' read '
into ' rear'd! The soldier, seeing the tomb, infers that Timon is
dead, but he cannot read the inscription ; * some beast read this !
there does not live a man able to do so ' {v. Preface^.

V. iv. 28. 'Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess ' ; Theo-
bald's emendation ('extreme shame for their folly in banishing
you hath broke their hearts*) ; Folio i reads '(Shame that they
wanted, cunning in excesse)* ; Folios 2, 3, 4, 'Shame {that they
wanted cunning in excesse)' ; Johnson conj. 'Shame that they
wanted, coming in excess.'

V. iv. 62. ' render' d to your'; the conj. of Chedworth.
adopted by Dyce ; Folio i reads ' remedied to your ' ; Folios 2, 3,
4, ' remedied by your ' ; Pope, ' remedied by ' ; Johnson, ' remedied

126

TIMON of ATHENS Notes

to'; Malone, ' remedy' d, to your'; Singer (ed. 2), 'remitted to
your,'

V. iv. 79. ' On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead ' ; the
reading of Folios ; Theobald reads ' On thy low grave, — On :
faults forgiven. — Dead ' ; Hanmer, ' On thy low grave our faults-^
forgiv'n, since dead,'

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THE LIFE OF

Explanatory Notes.

The Explanatory Notes in this edition have been specially selected and
adapted, with emendations after the latest and best authorities, from the
most eminent Shakespearian scholars and commentators, including Johnson,
Malone, Steevens, Singer, Dyce, Hudson, White, Furness, Dowden, and
others. This method, here introduced for the first time, provides the best
annotation of Shakespeare ever embraced in a single edition.

ACT FIRST.
Scene I.

I et seq. In Timon, as in Coriolanus, Shakespeare put his own
thoughts and feelings into the mouths of the various characters
of the play. Falseness and ingratitude are the subjects of the
most frequent allusion. They were uppermost in Shakespeare's
mind at the time, and the changes are rung upon these vices by
the Epicurean and the Cynic, by servants and strangers, before
and after the climax. Even the fickle Poet serves as spokesman
for the all-prevailing idea ; and the Painter is every whit as worth-
less.

30, 31. This picture, it would seem, is a full-length portrait of
Timon, in which the gracefulness of the attitude expresses the
habitual standing or carriage of the original.

yj. artificial strife : — The excellence of an artist was often set
forth by representing him as the tutor or the competitor of nature.
" The execution of the pencil emulating Nature," says Heath,
" displays a life in those touches which is livelier than even life
itself." So in the Poet's Venus and Adonis: —

Look, when a painter would surpass the life,
In limning out a well proportion'd steed,
His art with nature's workmanship at strife,
As ii the dead the living should exceed."

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TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

47-50. no leveled malice, etc.: — Johnson explains the passage
thus: " My poem is not a satire written with any particular view,
or levelVd at any single person : I fly, like an eagle, into a general
expanse of life, and leave not, by any private mischief, the trace of
my passage."

59. To Apemantus: — Ritson thinks that the Poet, seeing that
Apemantus paid frequent visits to Timon, naturally concluded
that he was as much of a courtier as the other guests.

171. prised by their masters: — Johnson explains: "Are rated
according to the esteem in which their possessor is held." For
the use of by, compare Coriolanus, III. ii. 52-54: —

" Because that now it lies you on to speak
To the people ; not by your own instruction.
Nor by the matter which your heart prompts you,*' etc.

180. When thou art Timon' s dog, etc. : — " That is," explains
Rolfe, " till 3''ou become a dog, and these knaves become honest —
a far-oflf morrozv to wait for." Hanmer read " When I am Ti-
mon's dog " ; and Johnson interpreted the passage thus : *' When
thou hast gotten a better character, and instead of being Timon
as thou art, shalt be changed to Timon's dog, and become more
worthy kindness and salutation."

185. Here, according to the judgement of most of the latest
commentators, begins the anonymous workmanship. Hudson
(Harvard ed.) indicates what he regards as the anonymous por-
tions of the play by asterisks placed before the lines. From this
indication it appears that Hudson assigns about three-fifths of
the play to Shakespeare, including nearly the whole of Act. I. i.,
all of Act n. i., most of Act H. ii., almost the whole of Act HI.
vi., all but about thirty lines of Act IV., and all except a dozen
lines of Act V. White's interesting opinion may be summarized
as follows : Act I. Sc. i., Shakespeare's until the entrance of
Apemantus; Sc. ii., not Shakespeare's; Act. II. Sc. i., Shake-
speare's ; Sc. ii., Shakespeare's, except where the Fool appears ;
Act III. Sc. i., not Shakespeare's, except, perhaps, the last speech ;
.Sc. ii., probably not Shakespeare's : Sc. iii., not Shakespeare's ; Sc.
iv., not Shakespeare's; Sc. v., not Shakespeare's; Sc. vi., mostly
not Shakespeare's; Act IV. Sc. i., Shakespeare's; Sc. ii., mostly
Shakespeare's ; Sc. iii., Shakespeare's, " and in his largest style " ;
.A.ct. V. Sc. i., partly Shakespeare's; Scs. ii. and iii., not Shake-
speare's ; Sc. iv., Shakespeare's beyond question.

195' for the innocence : — Rolfe says that " it may be a question

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Notes THE LIFE OF

whether this is to be taken literally or ironically." Crosby sur-
mises that " the cynic means that the picture has no spirit, no ex-
pression ; and dog-like he prefers it on that account."

233. That I had no angry wit to be a lord : — In Clarke's opinion,
this bears " the interpretation, * That, being a lord, I should have
no angry wit,' no faculty for acrimonious satire — such as Ape-
mantus prides himself upon possessing. The sentence also in-
cludes the eflfect of *that I had given up (Apemantus's) angry wit
in order to be a lord.' " " This," adds Rolfe, " is perhaps the best
of the attempts to explain the text, but it seems rather forced. If
we simply strike out angry, we doubtless get the real meaning of
the passage. The adjective is almost certainly wrong, but it is
difficult to replace it satisfactorily."

Scene II.

12, 13. // our betters, etc. : — ^That is, the faults of rich persons,
as the world goes, are thought fair ; still they are faults.

22. con f ess' d it! hanged it: — Perhaps an allusion to a proverbial
saying of Shakespeare's time, " Confess and be hanged."

35» 36. / myself would have no power: — Tyrwhitt explains thus :
" I myself would have no power to make thee silent, but I wish
thou wouldst let my meat make thee silent. Timon, like a polite
landlord, disclaims all power over the meanest or most trouble-
some of his guests."

37, 38. 'twould choke me, for, etc. : — " I could not swallow thy
meat, for / could not pay for it with flattery." So Johnson in-
terprets.

51. my windpipe's dangerous notes: — "The notes of the wind-
pipe seem to be only the indications which show where the wind-
pipe is." Thus Johnson. Of course the windpipe's notes are " the
sounds or motions made by the throat in drinking." There ap-
pears to be, as Steevens observes, a quibble on windpipe and notes.

109. Thou weep'si, etc. : — On this rather obscure passage, John-
son remarks : " The covert sense of Apemantus is, * what thou
losest, they get.' " Heath's explanation is : " The words Thou
weep'st do not only refer to the tears then actually shed, but to
those future ones for which Timon was laying the foundation;
. . . implying a prediction that the excess of drinking to
which he was now encouraging his false friends would prove the
source of tears to him flowing from real regret." Rolfe finds

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TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

neither of these interpretations satisfactory, and observes that
" perhaps the expression is nothing more than a cynical sneer at
the incongruity of making his tears an occasion for their
drinking."

III. like a babe: — "That is, a weeping babe," says Johnson.
Compare Heywood, Love's Mistress : " Joyed in his looks, look'd
babies in his eyes " ; also The Christian Turned Turk, 1612 :
" She makes him sing songs to her, looks fortunes in his fists, and
babies in his eyes."

114. Much was a not uncommon ironical expression of denial,
contempt, etc.

132. The writer probably borrowed this idea from the Puritani-
cal writers of his time. Thus Stubbes, in his Anatomie of Abuses,
1583: ''Dauncers thought to be madmen^ Again: "And as in
all feasts and pastimes dauncing is the last, so it is the extream
of all other vice." Once more: "There were (saith Ludovicus
Vives) from far countries certain men brought into our parts of
the world, who, when they saw men daunce, ran away, marvel-
lously affraid, crying out and thinking them mad."

133, 134. Like madness, etc. : — The glory of this life is just such
madness, in the eye of reason, as this pomp appears when com-
pared with the frugal repast of a man feeding on oil and roots.

ACT SECOND.
Scene I.

10. no porter at his ga/^ : —Johnson believed that a line after
this descriptive of a surly porter has been lost. Staunton con-
jectured grim porter, and so reads Hudson (Harvard ed.).

32. Which Hashes now a pheenix: — Which (for who) refers to
Timon ; according to the common practice of Shakespeare's day.

Scene II.

17. we 'II forth again : — That is, to hunting ; it was then the
custom to hunt after dinner as well as before. Thus in Tancred
and Gisntunda, 1592: "He means this evening in the park to
hunt." Queen Elizabeth, during her stay at Kenilworth Castle,
hunted in the afternoon.

73*74' She's e'en, etc.: — Alluding to the scalding of cKvcksxv^^

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Notes THE LIFE OF

to get the feathers off. And with this is joined a reference to a
certain disease and to the sweating-tub used for the curing of it;
which tub, according to Randle Holme, persons " were put into,
not to boyl up to an heighth, but to parboyl^

94. to Lord Timon's: — They are already in Timon's house.
Here is some blunder hard to explain. In Clarke's opinion the
presence-chamber or banqueting-room of Timon is meant.

117, iiS. artificial one: — Meaning the great object of all al-
chemical research, the philosopher's stone, in the author's time
much talked of.

138. that unaptness made, etc. : — The construction is, and you
made that unaptness your minister — ^you made my indisposition
serve you.

194-202. you to Lord Lucius . . . hum! — Hudson (Har-
vard ed.) agrees with Fleay in regarding this as non-Shake-
spearian, and in giving the next speech to a servant. Furnivall,
on the contrary, argues that " the Steward, in answer to this re-
quest, says that he has already asked the senators; and he gives
Timon their answer, that they will not lend the money. Timon,
however, does not get angry about their refusal; he merely ex-
plains it and excuses it : —

* These old fellows
Have their ingratitude in them hereditary :
Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows.'

Thiis the refusal of these old curmudgeons does not affect Timon,
does not anger him at all. It is his own personal friends that he
relies on, and whose refusal he thinks impossible. Again, if
Shakespeare only sent to the senators and Ventidius, he would
have left, as the cause of the entire and terrible change in
Timon's nature, nothing but the refusal of one false friend, Ven-
tidius; and this, when the refusal is not given in the play, ex-
cept by reference. I cannot believe that Shakespeare would make
the ingratitude of one man the sole cause of Timon's entire
change of character. This would not be motive enough ; we
must have refusal and ingratitude from more friends than one;
and I therefore believe that Shakespeare wrote these few prose
words ordering the servants to go to Lucius and Lucullus (and
possibly to Sempronius), as well as the Steward to go, first to the
senators, and then — that having been already tried — to Ventidius.
It is quite possible that the expander of the play put in the sen-
fence, ' You to Sempronius ' (^the third friend),, for Shakespeare

132

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

has not introduced a third servant by name. But this is not cer-
tain, as the direction of the Folio is 'Enter three Servants' and a
fourth false friend, and a fourth refusal, help to strengthen the
motive for Timon's change of character."

ACT THIRD.
Scene I.

47. solidares : — "I believe," says Steevens, " this coin is from the
mint of the Poet." Florio describes an Italian coin called a solido
as being of the value of a shilling, which may have been the
origin of the dramatist's coinage.

67, His for its, as in I. i. 31.

Scene 11.

24-26. had he mistook him, etc.: — Lucius means that though it
would have been a mistake in Timon to apply to him, who had
received but few favours from him in comparison to those be-
stowed on LucuUus, yet he could not have denied him.

88. / zvould have put my wealth into donation: — The meaning
evidently is, " Though he has never given me anything, I would
have regarded my wealth as a gift from him, and returned him
the best part of it."

Scene III.

7. How! have they denied him? — This speech is given with
the verse-like arrangement of lines with which it is printed in
the Folio; "but, if it were ever constructed in verse," says
White, "only the irreparable wreck remains." Hudson, both in
earlier and later editions, prints it, all but the closing couplet, as
prose.

31. set him clear: — The commentators have had much to say
on this passage. According to Warburton it means to "baffle
the devil, outdo him at his own weapons." Him, of course, refers
to man. Crossed, as Johnson and others have thought, means
exempted from evil ; and in their view it is the devil who is to be
set clear of the guilt of tempting man. " Servilius," says Mason,
" means to say that the devil did not foresee tVve ^^N^wV-a^^ "Cwax.

133

Notes THE LIFE OF

would arise to himself from thence, when he made man politic:
he redeemed himself by it, for men will, in the end, become so
much more villainous than he is, that they will set him clear; he
will appear innocent when compared with them." Steevens gives
" the notes of all the commentators," and then declares himself
to be " in the state of Dr. Warburton's devil — puzzled, instead of
being set clear by them." Hudson explains it thus : " In making
man crafty, or full of cunning shifts, the devil overreached or
thwarted himself ; for man is likely to outdo him so far in wicked-
ness as to pluck his laurels from him, and make him seem but a
poor devil after all."

Scene IV.

1 6. one may reach deep enough, etc. : — Steevens expounds
this as follows : " Still, perhaps, alluding to the effects of win-
ter, during which some animals are obliged to seek their scanty
provision through a depth of snow."

91. Knock me down with 'em : — There is here an implied play
upon words: hills formerly meant, in one use, a weapon. The
name was given especially to certain weapons carried by foresters,
watchmen, etc.

Scene V.

55, hy mercy. — Johnson explains the passage thus: "I call
Mercy herself to witness that defensive violence is just." Ma-
lone's interpretation is : " Homicide in our own defence, by a
merciful and lenient interpretation of the laws, is considered as
justifiable."

116. 'Tis honour, etc.: — "That is," explains Heath, "govern-
ments are in general so ill administered that there are very few
whom it is not an honour to oppose." Clarke's opinion is that
the general means merely to say, " the more war the more glory."
But Heath's explanation seems to suit the context better.

Scene VI,

102, 103. Of man and beast the infinite malady, etc. : — " I sus-
pect," says White, "that there is corruption here. Why should
the infinite malady crust? Did not Shakespeare write *the in-
fectious malady ' ? See Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. 4 :

134

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

* — Boils and plagues
Plaster you o*er; that you may be abhorred
Farther than seen, and one tnfect another
Against the wind a mile ! * *'

123. As Timon has in fact thrown nothing at his guests but
warm water and dishes, it is not altogether clear why stones
should be thus mentioned in this place. The things thrown may,
it is true, have had much the same effect as stones, and thus led
the speaker to mistake them for such missiles. On the other
hand, the common use of stones in such a way may have caused
other missiles to be designated by that term. Or the need of
something to rhyme with bones may have suggested the word.
But the most probable explanation is found in an old play on the
subject, in which Timon invites his false friends to a feast, but,
instead of warm water, sets before them stones painted to look
like artichokes, which he afterwards throws at them, and drives
them out. The date of this play is not fully ascertained, but the
play is supposed to have been written before Shakespeare's.

ACT FOURTH.
Scene I.

Timon is unable to accept his sorrow, and hold his nature stren-
uously under command until it can adjust itself to the altered
state of things. He flings himself from an airy, unreal philan-
thropy into passionate hatred of men. He is a revolter from
humanity. He foams at the mouth with imprecation. He shakes
off the dust of Athens from his feet, and strives to maintain him-
self in isolation, the one protester in the world against the
cruelty and selfishness and baseness of the race.

Scene II.

8-1 1. As we do turn . . . away: — Mason, very speciously,
as White thinks, suggested that we should transpose from and
to in this sentence, and read —

" As we do turn our backs
To our companion, thrown into his grave.
So his familiars from his buried fortunes
Slink all away.'*

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Notes THE LIFE OF

" Undoubtedly," says White, " when we leave the graves of our
friends, we turn our backs to or on them, and Timon's parasites
did slink away from his fallen fortunes. But this sentence is
written in a freer style than perhaps would be permissible now-
adays. Here turn our backs is used as the equivalent of go away ;
and the conduct of Timon's familiars is spoken of in its relation
to his buried fortunes." Hudson adopts Mason's transposition.

Scene III.

3-8. Twinn'd brothers . . . nature : — Brother, when his for-
tune is enlarged, will scorn brother. Not even beings besieged
with misery can bear good fortune without contemning their
fellow creatures, above whom accident has elevated them.

30, 31. Aristophanes, in his Plutus, makes the priest of Jupiter
desert his service to live with Plutus.

32. This alludes to a practice ascribed to some nurses of
brutally drawing away the pillow from under the heads of the
dying to hasten their departure.

63, 64. the rot returns, etc. : — This alludes to the old erroneous
prevalent opinion, that infection communicated to another left
the infector free. " I will not," says Timon, " take the rot from
thy lips by kissing thee." In this scene we trace the dramatist's
reading to Plutarch's Alcibiades, North's translation; there being
no mention made of the courtesans in either of the sources whence
the other materials of the play were drawn. Thus in Plutarch:
" Now was Alcibiades in a certaine village of Phrygia with a
concubine of his called Timandra. So he dreamed one night that
he had put on his concubines apparell, and how she had dressed
his head, frizeled his haire, and painted his face, as he had bene
a woman; and the voice goeth, this vision was but a litle before
his death. Those that were sent to kill him durst not enter the
house where he was, but set it on fire round about. Alcibiades,
spying the fire, got such apparell and hangings as he had, and
threw it on the fire, thinking to put it out; and so, casting his
cloke about his left arme, tooke his naked sword in his other
hand, and ranne out of the house, himselfe not once touched with
the fire, saving his clothes were a litle singed. These murtherers,
so soone as they spied him, drew backe, and stood asunder, and
durst not one of them come neere him, to stand and fight with
him; but afarre off they bestovjed so many arrowes and darts on

13&

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

him, that they killed him there. Now, when they had left him,
Thnandra went and tooke his body, which she wrapped up in the
best linen she had and buried him as honourably as she could."

133. Brandes says : " Compare this scene with the latter part
of Plutarch's Alcibiades, to which Shakespeare had referred, and
see what the Poet's acrimony has made of Timandra, the faithful
mistress who follows Alcibiades to Phrygia. They are together
when his murderess sets fire to the house, and it is Timandra who
enshrouds his body in the most costly material she possesses, and
gives him as splendid a funeral as her isolated position can
secure."

133. 134- Enough to make . . . bawd : — That is, " enough to
make whores leave whoring, and a bawd leave making whores."

144, 145. thatch your poor thin roofs, etc. : — The fashion of
periwigs for women, which Stowe informs us "were brought
into England about the time of the massacre of Paris," seems to
have been a fertile source of satire. Stubbes, in his Anatomic of
Abuses, says that it was dangerous for any child to wander, as
nothing was more common than for women to entice such as had
fine locks into private places, and there to cut them off. In
A Mad World My Masters, 1608, the custom is decried as un-
natural : " To wear periwigs made of another's hair, is not this
against kind ? " So Drayton, in his Mooncalf : —

" And with large sums they stick not to procure
Hair from the dead, yea, and the most unclean ;
To help their pride they nothing will disdain."

151 et seq. Brandes says: "They shout to him for more gold;
they will * do anything for gold.' Timon answers them in words
which Shakespeare, for all the pathos of his youth, has never
surpassed, words whose frenzied scathing has never been
equalled."

177-179. Common mother, etc.: — This image would almost
make one imagine that Shakespeare was acquainted with some
personifications of nature similar to the ancient statues of Diana
Ephesia Multimammia.

183. crisp : — This epithet probably has about the same meaning
here as that conveyed by the curl'd clouds in The Tempest, I. ii.
192. In Milton's Comus, 984, we find "the crisped shades and
bowers," apparently referring to the curling tendrils or leaves of
vines.

252 et seq. " There is in this speech," says Johnson, " a sullen

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Notes THE LIFE OF

haughtiness and malignant dignity, suitable at once to the lord
and the man-hater. The impatience with which he bears to have
his luxury reproached by one that never had luxury within his
reach is natural and graceful. There is in a letter, written by the
Earl of Essex, just before his execution, to another nobleman, a
passage somewhat resembling this, with which, I believe, every
reader will be pleased, though it is so serious and solemn that it
can scarcely be inserted without irreverence : * God grant your
lordship may quickly feel the comfort I now enjoy in my un-
feigned conversion, but that you may never feel the torments I
have suffered for my long delaying it. I had none but divines
to call upon me, to whom I said, if my ambition could have en-
tered into their narrow breasts, they would not have been so
humble; or if my delights had been once tasted by them, they
would not have been so precise. But your lordship hath one to
call upon you that knoweth what it is you now enjoy, and what
the greatest fruit and end is of all contentment that this world
can afford. Think, therefore, dear earl, that I have staked and
buoyed all the ways of pleasure unto you, and left them as sea-
marks for you to keep the channel of religious virtue. For shut
your eyes never so long, they must be open at the last, and then
you must say with me, there is no peace to the ungodly* "

263-266. as leaves, etc. : — Somewhat of the same imagery is
found in the LXXIII. Sonnet of Shakespeare : —

" That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold.
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

275,276. If thou hadst not . . . flatterer: — Johnson says:
" Dryden has quoted two verses of Virgil to show how well he
could have written satires. Shakespeare has here given a speci-
men of the same power, by a line bitter beyond all bitterness, in
which Timon tells Apemantus that he had not virtue enough for
the vices which he condemns. I have heard Mr. Burke commend
the subtlety of discrimination with which Shakespeare distin-
guishes the present character of Timon from that of Apemantus,
whom, to vulgar eyes, he would seem to resemble."

531. Thou singly honest man: — Wilkes finds in Timon's praise

of Flavius "the second instance, only, out of twenty-nine plays,

in which a man of less rank than a noble, or a knight, is spoken

of with approbation and respeet. The first instance is that of

TIMON OF ATHENS Notes

old Adam in As You Like It. It is worthy of observation, how-
ever, that one of the characters, at the opening of the next Act,
reports that Timon had given to his steward a mighty sum.
And here it should be remarked that the stewards of great lords
and millionaires, like Timon, were often of exceedingly good
families, as we see by the steward of Goneril in King Lear, who
is almost a cabinet minister."

ACT FIFTH.
Scene I.

[Enter Poet and Painter.] The Poet and Painter were within
view when Apemantus parted from Timon; they must therefore
be supposed to have been wandering about the woods in search
of Timon's cave, and to have heard in the interim the particulars
of Timon's bounty to the thieves and the steward. But Shake-
speare was not attentive to these minute particulars, and if he and
the audience knew these circumstances, he would not scruple to
attribute the knowledge to persons who perhaps had not yet an
opportunity of acquiring it.

208 et seq. This was suggested by a passage in Plutarch's Life
of Antonius, where it is said Timon addressed the people of
Athens in similar terms from the public tribune in the market-
place.

Scene III.

3. Timon is dead : — The scholiast of Aristophanes has the story
that Timon died from the mortification of a limb, broken by an
accident in the country, and lacking the contemned attendance of
a surgeon.

Scene IV.

[Alcibiades.] Although possessed of none of the potential
nobleness of Timon, Alcibiades has one faculty — ^that of perceiv-
ing such things as lie within the range of his limited observation.
He does not see the whole world, but he sees the positive limited
half of it rightly in the main. He is less than Timon, and yet
greater; for Timon miserably fails through want of the one gift
which Alcibiades has. In like manner, Hamlet failed foe ^Kaxvt

139

Notes THE LIFE OF

of the gift which Fortinbras possessed; and yet Hamlet's was be-
yond all measure a larger and rarer soul than that of the Prince
of Norway. Alcibiades has, at least, not been living in a dream;
he lays hold of the positive and coarser pleasures of life, and en-
dures its positive, limited pains, definite misfortunes which lie
within appreciable bounds. No absolute, ideal anguish like that
of Timon can overwhelm him.

70-73. Here lies, etc. : — What is here given as one epitaph is
really a combination of two, as may be seen by consulting
North's Plutarch. The reader will of course observe the ijicon-
sistency between the two couplets, the first saying, " Seek not my
name " ; the second, " Here lie I, Timon." How the two got thus
thrown together, it were vain to speculate : possibly the dramatist
was in doubt which to choose, and so copied them both, and
then neglected to erase the one which he meant to reject. In
The Palace of Pleasure the epitaph is given thus: —

'* My wretched catife dayes expired now and past,
My carren corps intered here is fast in grounde,
In waltering waves of swelling sea by surges cast :
My name if thou desire, the gods thee doe confounde."

140

TIMON OF ATHENS

Questions on Timon of Athens.

1. To what period of the Poet's career is Timon of Athens as-
signed ? With what other plays is it associated in the time scheme ?

2. What has been said by critics about the doubtful authorship
of parts? What parts are assigned to Shakespeare? Who have
been suggested as co-authors?

3. From what sources were the materials of the play probably
derived ?

4. Is it recorded that Timon of Athens was ever played upon
the stage in Shakespeare's era? Do you see any reason that
makes it unsuitable for a stage-play?

ACT FIRST.

5. Interpret the meaning of the expression concerning the
world, in line 3, It wears, sir, as it grows.

6. What does the opening Scene convey of the atmosphere in
which the life of Timon is passed?

7. Give some estimate of the character of the Poet as indicated
by his account of his art beginning line 20.

8. What standard of excellence is assumed for the judging of
the art of printing in the conversation of the Poet and the Painter ?

9. How does the Poet describe the people who surround
Timon? What does, he say of Apemantus? What is fore-
shadowed by the allegory that he draws for the Painter? How
is the Painter himself affected by the recital?

10. Show what the Ventidius episode contributes to the plot.
Comment on the naturalism of the subsequent colloquy with the
Old Athenian concerning the marriage of his daughter.

11. Show the dramatic purpose in introducing Apemantus at
this stage of the play. What is there in this colloquy from line
184 onward that has led to its condemnation as the work of
Shakespeare? From previous hints is it not likely that Shake-
speare designed the character?

12. In Sc. ii. what does Timon say about the t^tvrcw c»i ^iX.'sJ^

141

Questions THE LIFE OF

13. How does Apemantus reveal himself in the grace he oflFers
to the gods?

14. Does Timon's speech upon friendship show him to be a bad
observer of men?

15. Does the generosity of Timon strike you as fulsome? Is
this impression conveyed aside from the fact that the speech of
Flavins soon apprises us of his approaching bankruptcy?

16. What has Act I. established as* the underlying idea of the
plot? What are the positive elements of Timon's character?
Do they win admiration? Does the Act fail to present certain
elements concerning him that might aid in a higher s^preciation ?

ACT SECOND.

17. Show the turn in the tide indicated by the Senator's
speeches in Sc. i. How is prudence here weighed against friend-
ship, marking a sharp contrast with parts of the first Act?

18. For what does Flavius's speech at the opening of Sc. ii.
prepare? How does Flavins prove himself a resourceful servant?
What dramatic expedient is served by his manner of disposing of
the servants of Timon's creditors?

19. Why are lines 45-126 judged non-Shakespearian?

20. What is Timon's proposal when he hears that his treasury
is exhausted? How does he extenuate his past conduct? Upon
what does he place reliance?

21. To what does Timon refer in line 204 when he speaks of the
Senators, of whom, even to the state's best healthy he has de-
served a hearing?

22. What is the state of Ventidius's fortune when Timon ap-
plies to him for aid?

ACT THIRD.

23. How does Flaminius, Timon's servant, fare at the house of
Lucullus? How does he reflect upon the ingratitude . of Lucul-
lus?

24. What type of man is portrayed in Lucius in Sc. ii.?

25. Is there any ironic intention in the words of the First
Stranger; or do you interpret his words as a sincere utterance
hke those of Flaminius at the close of the first Scene?

26, What is tht excuse made by Sempronius?

142

TIMON OF ATHENS Questions

27. How is Timon affected in body and in mind by the treat-
ment of his false friends ? What does he finally determine upon ?

28. Does the episode which is brought out in Sc. v. seem to
invalidate the unity of the play? Would the case be improved
by naming the friend for whom Alcibiades pleads?

29. Is there not a subtle harmony between the case of Timon
in his present distress and that of the man under condemnation
by the Senate? Is the unity which at first sight seemed destroyed
in respect of this episode partially, at least, restored?

30. What does the Senate visit upon Alcibiades for his per-
sistent pleading? How is this later inwrought into the texture
of the story?

31. Sc. vi. is said to be of undoubted Shakespearian authorship.
What qualities differentiate it from the rest of the Act ?

52. Who were present at Timon's last banquet ? Would a lesser
dramatist have brought Lucullus, Lucius, Sempronius, and Ven-
tidius again upon the stage? Why did not Shakespeare?

53. How does he address them when they sit at the table?

34. Compare the breaking up of assembly with the similar
device in the play scene of Hamlet.

35. With what final words does Timon quit the scene?

ACT FOURTH.

36. Mention some elements of the picture of human society
that Timon draws in his imprecations upon Athens. Are these
the words of a sane man? Is a man sane who is possessed by so
powerful a passion?

37. How does he .compare mankind and the beasts? What
does he implore of the gods ?

38. What is the purpose of Sc. ii. ? Mention some un-Shake-
spearian qualities of Flavius's speech beginning with line 30.

39. What things are the object of Timon's curse in the open-
ing of Sc. iii.? Does he include himself in his general disdain
of humanity ? Upon what does he subsist ?

40. What does he find in digging in the earth? How does he
describe the power of money?

41. How is Alcibiades accompanied upon his entrance? Does
Timon recognize him? Why does Timon say, / do wish thou
wert a dog, that I might love thee something}

42. What does Timon name himself? What does he now say

143

Questions THE LIFE OF

or imply concerning friendship? When, in his opinion, did he
suffer miseries? •

43. Against Athens, how has Alcibiades arrayed himself?
What injunctions concerning Athens does Timon lay upon him?
Notice how at the mention of pity by Alcibiades, Timon turns
his invective mainly against pity as a possible accompaniment
of war.

44. What attitude to Alcibiades personally does Timon persist
in? What is his attitude towards the women who accompany
Alcibiades ?

45. Indicate the attitude of the dramatist towards women by
the way these two curry profit out of Timon's misanthropy?

46. How in line 176 does Timon define his malady?

47. Is Nature included in the curses Timon heaps upon man-
kind, and if so to what extent is she exonerated?

48. Show the dramatic purpose in bringing Timon and Ape-
mantus together. How do you contrast their respective views
of human society?

49. With what arguments does Apemantus try to persuade
Timon of the folly of his present course? What is there in
Timon that makes such a life as Apemantus recommends impos-
sible ?

50. In lines 239 et seq. how does Apemantus read Timon?
What degree of truth is there in his words?

51. How does Timon retort upon Apemantus? Is there truth
in his analysis?

52. Does either man compel admiration?

53. When does Timon resolve to die?

54. How does he apostrophize gold in lines beginning with 385 ?

55. How does Timon meet the Banditti who come out to rob
him? What warrant from nature's laws does he give them for
practising theft? Compare this view of nature with that of a
modern author, Robert Louis Stevenson, in an essay called
Pulvis et Umbra.

56. What effect have Timon's words upon the Banditti ?

57. How is the cause of Timon's misanthropy again sounded in
the words of Flavins?

58. In what way does the unselfishness of Flavins cause Timon
to modify his new creed? How does Flavins again point out the
weakness of Timon?

Sg. With what admonitions does Timon accompany his gift of
gold to Fiavius? In this is Vie consistent?

TIMON OF ATHENS Questions

ACT FIFTH.

60. Does the scene between Timon and the Poet and Painter
suggest Hamlet's dialogue with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in
the method employed in leading them into self-conviction ?

61. Who are the last visitors to Timon and by whom are they
sent? What inducements are used to persuade Timon to return
to Athens? What has led the Senate to make this request?
What has the play revealed of Timon's past history to warrant
this confidence in him?

62. Indicate the immediate effect upon him of the words of the
Senators.

6s. In the speech beginning line 171 does Timon show a gen-
uine pity for mankind, assuming his point of view as a just and
righteous one? In other words does Shakespeare prove the case
of misanthropy as a legitimate moral view-point ?

64. Does Timon in his latest speeches reach a pitch of
pessimism that seems to involve more than mankind in his ar-
raignment for the evils, to use his words, that nature's fragile
vessel doth sustain in life's uncertain voyage? Is there ever a
hint that men are helpless in the hands of malevolent deities?

65. What is effected by Scenes ii. and iii. ?

66. What charges does Alcibiades bring against Athens in
Sc. iv. ? How do the Senators exonerate Athens and the present
inhabitants from blame for that which Alcibiades is bringing pun-
ishment? Upon whom do they allow punishment to fall?

67. From whence did Shakespeare derive the epitaph of Timon ?
Of the two couplets which do you consider the more appropriate ?

68. What humour is there in the comment of Alcibiades upon
Timon's choice of a resting-place? What sublimity in the fact
itself?

69. How does this Scene present a justification of Timon?

70. The hero of a drama should commend himself to the in-
tellectual approbation if not to the moral affections. Does Timon
fulfil either of these demands? Show in what way this is ef-
fected, if you decide affirmatively. Has Shakespeare ever before
set himself so difficult a problem?

71. Does religion or philosophy set any approval upon mis-
anthropy? Is it a legitimate motif lot di^irvaXv^ ^x\?. Y^.*^^ •i:Ni

145

Questions

other of the world's great dramatists treated the motif? If so,
has it been treated in the spirit of tragedy or comedy?

72. Does the present day development of philosophic thought
make it any longer possible to treat misanthropy as a tragic
motif?

73. Comment on Shakespeare's spiritual state at the time of
writing this play. What characters save the play from inculca-
ting absolute pessimism ? In what ways do they furnish the re-
action from the dominant implications?

74. Support by citation from the play the following criticism by
Lloyd : " He speaks and curses in spleen and sarcasm rather
than malevolently, and the natural tendency of his suggestions
of mischief is from their tone rather to awaken shame and self-
mistrust in the vicious than to stimulate to vice, and some notes -
of lamentation and remonstrance are audible amidst and above
his angry complaints."

75. Show the similarity and contrast between Coriolanus and.
Timon.

y6. In what way is Apemantus related to Thersites?

77. Mention some passages of poetry that may be said to pos-
sess sublimity and show their dramatic fitness.

78. Had Shakespeare bidden the world farewell with this play
what would be assumed as to his knowledge and experience of
life ? What evidence have we that he attained to higher spiritual
levels ?

146

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